A former Deutsche Bank managing director said she was put up for redundancy purely because of her age and gender, just as executives in London feared the COVID pandemic would hit lending to the bank's wealthy clients.
Elisabeth Maugars, who was 57 at the time she was dismissed, sued the bank at an employment tribunal in London, saying she suffered discrimination by bosses who were younger than her and "uncomfortable" with her age. She says a senior executive told her the bank "had and continues to have a major problem with senior women."
"I never felt that my age was considered of value, actually the contrary," said Maugars, whose French nationality and white hair prompted colleagues to teasingly refer to her as Christine Lagarde.
Deutsche Bank is fighting the lawsuit, saying it investigated Maugars's claims and couldn't substantiate them. She was selected for redundancy in the early summer of 2020 because the firm needed to combine lending groups with prospects for the business looking poor. The executive, Salman Mahdi, denies making the comment about senior women, it said.
London's employment tribunals are seeing a surge in cases between employees and the U.K.'s financial services firms over sex, race and age discrimination allegations. While claims of ageism have previously been comparatively rare, they're set to increase as the government said the pandemic meant that large numbers of older employees left the workforce sooner than expected, some of them involuntarily.
Maugars told colleagues that being compared to the European Central Bank president, who is seven years her senior, was "offensive and unwarranted."
"My objection was ignored," Maugars said. "It seems that colleagues found it amusing."
Just a couple of years into her time at Deutsche Bank, the banker said it was clear that senior management didn't have her back. They attempted to downplay what she considered to be harassment and bullying by a senior male banker, Daniel von Heyl, she said.
In 2017, he walked into her office saying "I am a successful and accomplished banker who is full of potential whereas you are an incompetent subordinate with no future," according to her witness statement.
She said she was just offered mediation and no action was taken. Von Heyl, who's no longer at the bank, didn't respond to a LinkedIn message requesting comment. A call and email to a number at von Heyl's current employer,
'Death sentence'
Through the early months of 2020, the banker who specialized in lending tied to publicly listed stocks, was tapped to join a management board with oversight of U.K. wealth management.
But in May, as turmoil swept through financial markets, Maugars says the bank asked its most senior executives to forgo a month's pay, which she agreed to do. Then just days later she was told she faced redundancy.
"While I was at risk of redundancy I was acutely aware that taking my age into consideration I had, unless I was incredibly lucky, been given a professional death sentence," she said.
The bank said it was under "significant cost pressure" and wanted to merge the group's running recourse and nonrecourse lending.
