Not just a good week for Deutsche

It's not been a good week for Deutsche Bank. Germany's largest bank and one of the blue bloods of the European investment banking sector has come under fire for its involvement in the sale of 44 million shares in Deutsche Telekom, the former State telephone company into which a considerable number of Irish investors put their money when it floated a couple of years ago.

The bank handled the sale of the shares that undermined the company's share price just a day after issuing a "buy" recommendation on the stock. Now, the transaction is under investigation.

As I say, not a good week. All the more surprise then that it emerged Deutsche was working on plans to further integrate the Morgan Grenfell business it bought 12 years ago, a move that will signal the disappearance of the Morgan Grenfell name after more than 160 years.

You would have thought a bank whose name is in the spotlight just now for all the wrong reasons would be slow to dispose of a stainless blue-chip brand name.