Deutsche Bank CEO rejects idolatry tag

Uzbekistan News.Net
Saturday 27th December, 2008

A public exchange between prominent German bank, Deutsche Bank, and Germany’s senior Protestant bishop, has turned controversial, with Deutsche Bank dismissing the remarks of Bishop Wolfgang Huber.

Deutsche Bank has reacted angrily to comments by Bishop Huber, who accused Josef Ackermann, CEO of Deutsche Bank, of turning money-making into a form of "idolatry."

The personal attack was made in a newspaper interview published on Christmas Eve, when Bishop Huber argued that bankers should ensure stability rather than set high monetary goals.

He said of Joseph Ackerman, who had set a profit goal of 25 percent for the bank, that such goals had driven up expectations to unsustainable levels and amounted to "a form of idolatry."

He said: "In the current circumstances, money has become a god."

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