Bank to cut 18,000 jobs.

GERMANY'S struggling Deutsche Bank has said it will cut 18,000 jobs by 2022 in a sweeping restructure aimed at restoring consistent profitability and improving returns to its shareholders. The bank, which has its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, said on Sunday that it would drop its stock sales and trading unit as part of a plan to exit more volatile investment banking activities. It said it would cut roughly a quarter of its total cost base through steps such as dropping the investment bank's stock-trading business.

It would also slim down its division focused on fixed-income investments.

By doing that, the bank would focus on areas with steadier earnings such as corporate customers. The bank would also create a separate unit to dispose of investments that were less profitable or no longer worked with its strategy.

The bank would not say where the job cuts would fall - many of its investment banking activities are carried out in New York and London. The move follows the failure of merger talks with German rival Commerzbank.