The chairman of Deutsche Bank Rolf Breuer is resigning after a court decided he and the bank could be liable for comments Breuer made that media mogul Leo Kirch said led to the collapse of his empire.
"Dr Breuer said he was stepping down from the Supervisory Board to relieve Deutsche Bank of further discussion regarding him personally following a decision by the German Supreme Court on 24 January 2006," the bank said in a statement on Sunday.
As its chairman, Breuer is one of the most powerful managers at the bank, responsible for the appointment of its chief executive, Josef Ackermann.
Breuer, formerly Deutsche's chief executive, also represents an old guard of traditionalists at the bank, some of whom had objected to Ackermann's strategy.
Ackermann has spearheaded Deutsche Bank's transformation into a global investment-banking powerhouse - finance chief Clemens Boersig will now take Breuer's job.
Ackermann welcomed what he called Breuer's honourable decision, saying it was in the best interests of the bank and thanked him for a good working relationship.
LONG-RUNNING BATTLE:
Breuer's departure follows a long-running legal wrangle with the fallen German television media mogul Leo Kirch.
Last January, the German federal court said Breuer could in principle be held personally liable for remarks in a 2002 television interview that Kirch said undermined his efforts to raise money as his empire creaked under a mountain of debt.
In the interview, Breuer said: "From what you can read and hear, the finance sector is not willing to provide further debt or equity on the same terms."
Kirch, who filed for insolvency weeks later, said the interview torpedoed attempts to raise money to keep the company afloat.
The court also said Breuer's words had breached Deutsche Bank's duty not to endanger the Kirch business's creditworthiness.
Kirch, 79, will now need to bring a separate case to determine the amount of damages, should the two sides not settle out of court first.
Ackermann too is facing legal action. Last year, the country's top criminal court ruled that Ackermann and others must be retried over bonuses they waved through as directors of telecoms firm Mannesmann.
Ackermann has said he would quit if found guilty in the case. Breuer had told a German newspaper at the time that he already had his thinking cap on about a successor.
Deutsche Bank said on Sunday it would propose to shareholders at its annual shareholder meeting on June 1 that finance chief Boersig takes Breuer's job.
The supervisory board said it was convinced that only someone experienced and familiar with the "the complex nature of a bank with global operations" could do the job.
Deutsche said it appointed Group Controller Anthony Di Iorio to replace Boersig, who will resign from his post as CFO on the same day Breuer leaves the board.
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