Ever wonder what happens when the worlds of high finance, politics and corruption collide? Well, wonder no more as David Enrich lays bare behind the scenes shenanigans in his fast-paced book: Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction.

Enrich a veteran of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), tracks the 150-year progress of Deutsche Bank and how it evolved from a sleepy German bank to a powerhouse in global finance.

The bank weathered crisis after crisis starting with the disastrous dealing with the American railroads in the 1880s to dalliances with the Nazis. Post World War II, with Germany in ruins, the Allies encouraged the resurgence of Deutsche Bank from the ashes of defeat. They needed German banks to help the German economy pay back billions of dollars of war reparations.

Led by Reagan and Thatcher, the loosening of the financial regulations opened the floodgates of modern finance. It was in these go-go ’80s that the brash investment bankers, as we now know them, came to the fore.

At this time, the Deutsche executives decided the staid European banking model could not be sustained. Acquisitions of Morgan Grenfell, a venerable City of London institution, and, later, Bankers’ Trust, the American derivatives house, soon followed. They transformed the culture of the bank and the senior management now had a distinctly international flavour.

The new breed of Deutsche bankers was talented but also loaded with ambitions and avarice. They were not afraid to fly too close to the edge and ended up doing business deals that were reckless and often with dubious counterparties. It was a global finance highly charged on testosterone. Dodgy real estate tycoons, Middle Eastern dictators and sanctioned countries were welcome to transact with the bank. The book provides fascinating details on some of the more dubious deals including the Banca Monte dei Paschi scandal in Italy.

With Swiss Josef Ackermann and Indian Anshu Jain at the helm, the bank’s risk-taking reached a new height and by 2007, it was the largest bank in the world (in terms of its balance sheet). A lot of corners had been cut to reach that point and along the way, hundreds of millions of bonuses had been collected by the top bankers.

The most interesting and colourful portion of the book is reserved for the bank’s dealing with Donald Trump. I will not provide any spoilers here, but the US president certainly seems to have run circles around the bank through a spate of troublesome deals.

By the time the regulators had wised up to these practices and slapped the bank with a record seven billion dollar fine, Jain had already left the bank. These regulatory intrusions finally led to the decline which saw the bank aggressively cut its investment banking business leading to tens of thousands of job losses around the world. The greed and recklessness of the few spelt catastrophe for the many.

Aside from documenting the headline-grabbing antics of the bank, the book also recounts the fascinating characters behind the scenes. A son searching for the truth after his father, a senior Deutsche banker, committed suicide due to the intense pressure. An American duo oversaw the transformation of the bank into a global powerhouse. A raft of aggressive bankers showed a penchant for risk-taking, with other people’s money, might I add.

The most interesting and colourful portion of the book is reserved for the bank’s dealing with Donald Trump. I will not provide any spoilers here, but the US president certainly seems to have run circles around the bank through a spate of troublesome deals.

This is a well-researched book that will certainly find favour with those who appreciate this genre popularised by writers such as Michael Lewis (of Liar’s Poker and The Big Short fame). It is a fascinating insight into a world where multi-million-dollar bonuses and even larger egos abound.

It should come as no surprise that this book does not shed a kind light on Deutsche Bank and its practices. That said, there is hardly a bank on Wall Street that can hold a torch for
ethical conduct. Nevertheless, the escapades of the bankers at the helm of Deutsche Bank make for an entertaining read.

Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction (2020)

Author: David Enrich

Publisher: Custom House

Pages: 416

The writer is a finance professional based in Dubai