He has also been a member of the Dutch central bank supervisory board and regularly has represented the queen at international events.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

And the next day a Munich court ruled that Deutsche and Rolf Breuer, Mr Ackermann's predecessor, who now chairs the bank's supervisory board, were liable to pay damages to Leo Kirch, a media mogul whose empire crumbled last year.

ECONOMIST: There is no quick way out of the quagmire for Germany's banks

While the bank's 20-strong supervisory board watched over its four-man executive board (whose salaries are declared), the committee got on with running the bank without revealing its executives' remuneration.

ECONOMIST: Corporate governance in Germany