Hello and welcome to the global dialogue. I'm Shireen Pan and joining me now to talk about the state of the world but more importantly how India plays a part in what's happening globally is the global CEO of Deutsche Bank, Christian Sewing. Christian, many thanks for joining us here on CBCT18. Appreciate your time. Before I talk to you about what's happening in the rest of the world, let's talk about why you're here in India and how India is playing itself out in this era of volatility. You've just met with India's commerce minister PJ Goyel. What's the read on India at this point in time?
Well, first of all, thank you very much for having me. It's a pleasure being here. It's a pleasure being in this country. To be honest, that meeting was very positive but the overall spirit in this country is outright positive. I've been here now for 3 days and I have to say I'm amazed by the steam, by the drive, by the passion. And you know, it's an economy which is obviously outright growing. Actually, with whomever you talk, the story is gross and it is also coming obviously from Germany being one of the leading European banks looking at our clients. Our clients are actually looking to India out of the lens of this is an opportunity. A lot of global clients, a lot of multinationals, but also family-owned companies are in the process of reorganizing their supply chains, their production chains, and India is always top on the list and that is from a Deutsche Bank point of view a huge opportunity for us. We have been here for 45 years. We have 23,000 people. We are growing immensely. We just put $800 million of capital into India. So, we want to grow and our clients want to grow. So it's a very positive story. So I'm excited.
Well, let me build on that excitement that you just gave us a snapshot into. When you talk to your clients and you say that they're looking at opportunities in India, what are the opportunities specifically that they've been able to identify and that they want to zero in on?
The nice thing is it varies. First of all, it's a market with 1.4 billion people. Number two, it's a market with such a young demographic. You can see in which direction it goes. So simply from a markets point of view, it's an opportunity in particular for a lot of European and German export-oriented companies, and there is lots to grow in this regard. Number two, the skill set which India is offering for all kinds of industries is superior to a lot of other countries. Let me argue it from a financial point of view, financial services point of view. We have overall 90,000 people in Deutsche Bank; 23,000 are in India now, approximately 18,000 to 19,000 people are actually in our innovation, risk management, finance, operations teams. They are, so to speak, the backbone of Deutsche Bank as a group. And the technology innovation and skills we get are core for the overall bank. Therefore, a lot of other corporates are also looking at India not only as a huge market but also as a source of innovation and technology. Hence, it's actually your strength that it's very much broad-based, and therefore I'm very positive on the development. You know, it's interesting that you brought up the talent aspect. I think the global capability center story is a story that's firing on all cylinders at this point in time. But the point that you made about almost outsourcing risk management to India, I think that's not something that is often appreciated or even reflected upon enough, and that's going well for you. Well, look, risk management is obviously core to a bank, and you know, most of you know that my career started in risk management. I was actually one of the people in Deutsche Bank who set up the rating center here in Mumbai actually 20 years ago, over 20 years ago. But we are not fully outsourcing. I think most important also for a bank is that we are diversified, that we are well distributed. But one of the very critical analyses is coming out of India. Based on that, decisions are taken. But with the development we see here, more and more tasks can actually be done here and automated here. So the quality of work is superb. But of course, we will make sure that we are not, so to speak, creating a dependency which would be an own risk for Deutsche Bank, and therefore we keep the balance. But clearly, India has grown significantly in terms of its strengths.
You know back to one of the opportunities that you spoke of when you talk to your clients are they looking at making strategic investments in India? Are they looking at M&A? Are they looking at joint ventures? How exactly do they want to address the Indian market? What are the routes that they're looking at at this point in time? How do you help them?
Well, again, it's not the one and only goal. Yes, there is, I think over the next 3 to 5 years, there is big M&A activity. By the way, not only from Germany into India, but also from Indian companies into Europe because also India wants to diversify, India wants to grow in the international market. I'm really hoping that we hopefully get a free trade agreement with the European Union very soon. I think it shows the bilateral strengths which we can play between the European Union and India. So there is on both sides there will be M&A activity. Now on the other hand, if you think about Europe, if you think about our challenges but also opportunities, we need to read the Draghi report. The Draghi report is talking about 800 billion of investments which need to be done in Europe in order to be competitive in terms of technology, defense, other infrastructure investments, sustainability. Now when it comes to technology, we need the know-how and the technology which is coming out of India. So I can think about actually the joint ventures of Indian companies with German companies. Then again, the other way around is that German corporates are actually trying to diversify. They are looking for additional markets. India is a market. So it always depends. But the nice thing is that it plays, in my view, to the strengths of both countries or both continents, so to say EU and India or Germany and India. And therefore, you know, I'm returning to Germany and also discussions with the government at home and saying this is the market we should focus even more on.
