Anshu Jain: Deutsche Bank's Next CEO?

The appointment of Anshu Jain as sole head of Deutsche Bank's (DB) investment bank last month put him in charge of more than 80 percent of the company's profit and reinforced his position as a front-runner to become chief executive. One catch: He was born in India and doesn't speak German, a potential handicap for an executive who must negotiate the corridors of political power as well as global markets. "Based on performance, Jain is the crown prince," says Lutz Roehmeyer, who helps manage about $15 billion at Landesbank Berlin Investment in the German capital. "But Deutsche Bank has a split personality—a global investment bank being run out of London and a German lender with a very political role. Any successor's key challenge will be bridging these two worlds."

Deutsche Bank's board ducked the issue last year by extending CEO Josef Ackermann's tenure for three years after failing to agree on a replacement. The Swiss-born Ackermann, 62, revived speculation about succession in May when he told shareholders that he's been holding "intensive" talks on the topic with supervisory board Chairman Clemens Boersig for months. Jain, Ackermann, and Boersig declined to comment for this article.