Ex-minister on Deutsche Bank board

Frankfurt: Germany´s biggest lender Deutsche Bank has said it had recruited former foreign minister and Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Sigmar Gabriel to join its supervisory board.

"With his wealth of experience, having served as environment minister, economic affairs minister and foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel will make a unique contribution," supervisory board chief Paul Achleitner said in a statement. For his part, Gabriel welcomed "the opportunity and the responsibility to help shape the future of the German and European economy" at Deutsche Bank.

The lender has spent years struggling to overcome the aftershocks of the financial crisis and sector-wide headwinds like the European Central Bank´s negative interest rates policy. In October, it reported losses in the first three quarters of 2019 of 3.9 billion euros ($4.3 billion), placing it on course for one of its worst annual results ever.