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Deutsche Bank has made the first of the 18,000 job cuts announced on Sunday as part of a radical reorganisation.
Teams of share traders in Tokyo and other offices in Asia were told on Monday that their jobs were going.
Shares in Deutsche Bank were about 3% higher in Frankfurt as investors reacted to the shake-up.
A spokesperson said the aim of the changes, which will shrink its investment banking business, was to make the bank “leaner and stronger”.
Deutsche Bank is yet to specify exactly where the rest of the jobs will be lost.
But it will exit activities related to trading shares, much of which takes place in London and New York.
With almost 8,000 staff, Deutsche Bank is one of the biggest employers in the City of London.
“We will retain a significant presence here and remain a close partner to our UK clients and to international institutions that want to access the London market,” it said in a statement on Monday.
Deutsche Bank said it would cut its global workforce to 74,000 by 2022, part of a reorganisation that will cost the company €7.4bn over the next three years.
It will also report a second-quarter loss of €2.8bn, partly due to the costs of the shake-up.
A Deutsche Bank spokesperson said: “We have decided to focus our resources on businesses where clients need us most.
“We are setting up a dedicated corporate bank specialising in the financing and treasury products the world’s companies need to support trade and investment around the globe.
“Deutsche Bank will remain an international bank. That’s what our clients need.”
The reorganisation of the business follows the failure of merger talks with rival Commerzbank in April.
The German government had supported the tie-up, hoping it would create a national champion in the banking industry.
However, both banks concluded that the deal was too risky, fearing the costs of combining might have outweighed the benefits.
What’s bad for Deutsche Bank could be good for Barclays.
The once-mighty German firm’s retreat from international investment banking leaves Barclays as the last European bank standing in a sector dominated by US giants like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.
As one Barclays insider told the BBC: “Deutsche is where Barclays was five to 10 years ago. The difference is that we had a successful retail business (loans, mortgages, credit cards) to help us endure the most difficult times. Deutsche Bank hasn’t got that.”
The structure of the German banking sector is very different from the UK with lots of smaller regional banks grabbing most retail customers.
Barclays has been picking up market share from Deutsche and other European banks for over a year now and will see this as a further opportunity to expand into the space vacated by the German retreat.
While Barclays may pick up business, the real victors from Deutsche’s demise are the US banks who have prevailed after many unsuccessful attempts (RBS, UBS, DB and others) to muscle into the so-called “bulge bracket” of international investment banks.
Wall Street is arguably more powerful than ever.
Deutsche Bank has been struggling for years with the decline of its investment bank and has made several attempts to revamp its business.
The latest plan will be the most ambitious so far and it has already prompted the resignation of one top executive.
On Friday, the bank announced that its head of investment banking, Garth Ritchie, was leaving.
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