Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's biggest bank, plans to cut about 900 jobs in its global markets division as the credit crisis worsens, two people briefed on the plan said.

The reductions, mostly in London and New York, will be made in the so-called exotic structured products, credit origination, and proprietary trading teams, said the people, who declined to be identified before a formal announcement.

Deutsche Bank, which employs 15,500 at its corporate and investment bank, has already eliminated more than 1,500 jobs this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The cuts add to the more than 159,000 losses announced by banks and brokers worldwide since the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market last year. Citigroup Inc. said this week it will slash 52,000 jobs over the next year.

``What you have now is an earthquake,'' said Jason Kennedy, chief executive officer of London-based recruiter Kennedy Associates. ``The big tremor is happening now before bonus season. There will be another one in the New Year.''

Deutsche Bank dropped 8.8 percent in Frankfurt trading to 21.39 euros. The stock has dropped 76 percent this year to value the bank at about 12.2 billion euros ($15.4 billion).

The decision was reported earlier today by Sky News. A spokesman for the bank in Frankfurt declined to comment.

Deutsche Bank's investment-banking unit, led by Anshu Jain and Michael Cohrs, reported a third straight quarterly pretax loss on Oct. 30 after more than 1 billion euros in losses from trades made on its own account.

Credit Writedowns

The German bank booked third-quarter writedowns of 1.2 billion euros on loans for leveraged buyouts, residential- mortgage backed securities, assets secured by bond insurers and commercial real estate. That brought total markdowns to about 8.5 billion euros since last year.

Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann said on Oct. 30 financial markets remain ``challenging'' and the investment banking unit faced a ``sharp deterioration'' in market conditions.

Deutsche Bank follows JPMorgan Chase & Co. in scaling back its proprietary trading operations. JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank by market value, is shutting down its global proprietary trading desk and cutting some of the unit's employees, a person familiar with the matter said this month. Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, is also weighing cuts in its proprietary trading desk, according to three people familiar with the matter.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joyce Moullakis in London at jmoullakis@bloomberg.net; Elizabeth Hester in New York at ehester@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 19, 2008 12:40 EST