Anshu Jain
Anshuman Jain | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 January 1963 Jaipur, India |
| Died | 12 August 2022 (aged 59) London, United Kingdom |
| Occupation(s) | Business leader, banker |
| Years active | 1985–2022 |
| Known for | Co-CEO of Deutsche Bank (2012–2015), President of Cantor Fitzgerald (2017–2022) |
Anshuman Jain (7 January 1963 – 12 August 2022) was a British business leader of Indian origin. Between 2017 and 2022, he held the position of president at the American financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald.
Before that, from June 2012 until July 2015, Jain was the Global co-CEO and co-Chairman of Deutsche Bank. He also served on Deutsche Bank's Management Board and led its Corporate and Investment Bank division, managing corporate finance, sales and trading, as well as transaction banking. Jain remained involved with Deutsche Bank as a consultant until January 2016.
Early life and education
Born on 7 January 1963 in Jaipur, India, Jain was the son of a career civil servant affiliated with the Indian Audit and Accounts Service. He was raised in the Jain faith and adhered to a vegetarian diet. At six years old, he relocated with his father to New Delhi, where he attended Delhi Public School, Mathura Road.
He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics at Shri Ram College of Commerce, part of the University of Delhi, graduating in 1983. At 19, Jain moved to the United States to pursue further education, earning a Master of Business Administration in finance from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1985. During his studies, he was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma and learned under Thomas Schneeweis, an authority on alternative investments such as futures, options, and derivatives.
Kidder Peabody and Merrill Lynch, 1985–1995
Following his MBA graduation, Jain began his Wall Street journey as a derivatives research analyst at Kidder, Peabody & Co. from 1985 to 1988. He then transitioned to Merrill Lynch in 1988, where over seven years he established and led the global hedge fund coverage team. His focus was on marketing financial instruments like interest-rate swaps to hedge funds. During this period, he developed a professional relationship with investment banker Edson Mitchell, who became an influential mentor.
Deutsche Bank investment banker and executive, 1995–2012
In 1995, Edson Mitchell was recruited by Deutsche Bank from Merrill Lynch to develop a premier investment bank division in London. Mitchell brought along Jain and several other bankers from Merrill Lynch. Jain took charge of a team dedicated to marketing fixed-income derivatives to major investors and hedge funds. By February 1997, he had advanced to lead Deutsche Bank’s Global Institutional Client Group, broadening fixed income activities into foreign exchange and credit derivatives. By the year 2000, his responsibilities expanded to encompass global capital markets, sales operations, over-the-counter derivatives including credit derivatives, and emerging markets.
After Mitchell passed away in December 2000, Jain assumed leadership of Global Markets in early 2001. In September 2004, he was named co-head of the Corporate and Investment Bank alongside Michael Cohrs, overseeing equities trading and its integration with fixed income activities. Under Jain’s direction, this division became highly profitable and accounted for the majority of Deutsche Bank’s earnings. He played a pivotal role in transforming Deutsche Bank into a dominant force in fixed income by more than doubling revenue from debt sales and trading between 2000 and 2009. This positioned the bank as a global investment banking competitor alongside major Wall Street firms.
Following Cohrs’ retirement in 2010, Jain took full leadership of the Corporate and Investment Bank division. He managed worldwide sales and trading across multiple asset classes including bonds, commodities, emerging markets equities, foreign exchange, money markets, credit derivatives, and interest-rate products. This segment contributed over 80% of Deutsche Bank’s profits, bolstering Jain’s reputation as a likely successor to CEO Josef Ackermann, despite being based in London and not fluent in German. Jain joined Deutsche Bank’s Group Executive Committee in 2002 and became a member of its Management Board (Vorstand) in 2009.
Co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, 2012–2015
In July 2011, Jain was named co-CEO of Deutsche Bank alongside German executive Jürgen Fitschen, with their joint leadership commencing on 1 June 2012. Throughout their shared tenure, Fitschen was responsible for the retail banking segment, German market operations, and governmental relations in Berlin, whereas Jain oversaw the investment banking division as well as asset and wealth management, acting as the bank's global representative. Jain consolidated the asset and wealth management sectors into a unified global division to enhance competitiveness against leading bank units, appointing Michele Faissola as its head and encouraging integration between this division and investment banking.
During Jain’s leadership, Deutsche Bank encountered several regulatory probes and lawsuits linked to areas under his jurisdiction, many driven by the imperative to sustain high profitability. These challenges led to substantial penalties, notably a $2.5 billion fine in April 2015 for Libor rate manipulation, which added to nearly $1 billion previously paid, bringing total Libor-related fines to approximately $3.5 billion. In March 2013, the bank revised its 2012 earnings due to litigation expenses, resulting in a reduction of Jain’s and Fitschen’s remuneration to €4.8 million ($6.2 million) each.
Jain and Fitschen endeavored to strengthen the bank’s capital position and reduce expenses by divesting assets, lowering trading risks, modifying internal risk models to decrease capital requirements, shedding non-transparent assets, and cutting bonus payouts. Despite these measures, shareholders deemed the progress inadequate as hefty regulatory fines and legal costs severely affected profitability. The institution consistently failed to meet profit expectations and lagged in stock market performance.
Criticism was directed at Jain for insufficiently or belatedly reforming Deutsche Bank’s high-risk investment banking activities. The five-year restructuring strategy revealed in April 2015 was broadly regarded as inadequate; during the annual shareholders’ meeting in May, only 61% endorsed it. Confronted with waning shareholder trust, employee dissatisfaction over workforce reductions and branch closures, repercussions from the Libor settlement along with other investigations—including a $55 million SEC penalty and an internal probe into Russian money laundering—Jain and Fitschen declared their resignations on 7 June 2015. Fitschen remained as interim co-CEO alongside incoming CEO John Cryan until 19 May 2016.
Career after Deutsche Bank, 2015–2022
In 2016, Jain took on an advisory role with San Francisco–based fintech company SoFi (Social Finance, Inc.). By January 2017, he was appointed president of Cantor Fitzgerald, a mid-sized private investment banking and financial services firm headquartered in New York under the leadership of Howard Lutnick. At this time, Jain also resigned from his position at SoFi. Within Cantor Fitzgerald, his focus was on growing fixed-income and equity trading operations along with prime brokerage, while steering the firm’s strategic direction and overseeing overall business functions.
Jain additionally contributed to the advisory board of InCred, an Indian non-banking financial institution, and participated on the finance group advisory board at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He also held trustee and advisory positions with UK-based charitable organization Chance to Shine and India’s Wildlife Conservation Trust. His prior board engagements included memberships with the Institute of International Finance, the Financial Services Forum, and the international advisory panel of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Awards
In 2003, Jain was honored with the Capital Markets Achievement Award by Euromoney magazine. Three years later, in 2006, the American India Foundation recognized him for his philanthropic efforts and leadership qualities. By 2010, he had received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Risk magazine as well as the annual Business Leader Award presented by NASSCOM. In 2012, The Economic Times designated him as the Global Indian of the Year during the Economic Times Awards. Subsequently, in 2014, Jain was bestowed with an Honorary Fellowship from London Business School along with an Honorary Doctorate from TERI University based in New Delhi.
Personal life
Jain was married to Geetika, who authored travel literature and books for children. The family resided between London and New York City and were parents to two children. His personal passions encompassed cricket, golf, wildlife photography, and environmental conservation.
He had a biological brother named Ashwin Jain and a cousin, Ajit Jain, who has served as vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway’s insurance division since 2018.
Jain passed away at age 59 on 12 August 2022 in London due to duodenal cancer.