CARY – North Carolina has revoked an incentive agreement with Deutsche Bank. The reason: the global banking giant told the state it couldn’t meet its hiring requirements because of recent job cuts.

Deutsche Bank bases its software and applications development group in Cary. Back in 2015, it had promised to add 250 jobs in exchange for $3.4 million in incentives.

In recent years, however, it’s hit hard times. Last year, Deutsche Bank, which once had nearly 100,000 employees worldwide, started a dramatic overhaul to reduced its workforce by 18,000. At the time, it had around 900 workers in Cary, WRAL TechWire reported.

That number has since dropped to 577, according to the firm’s update on its headcount to the Commerce Department on Tuesday.

Few NC tech firms have publicly acknowledged making large numbers of layoffs during 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded and crushed the economy. IBM cut jobs but has not disclosed how many.

However, over the last month jobs site Indeed.com has listed 10 job openings at the Cary campus.

The state’s Economic Incentive Committee officially ended the agreement by vote via a Webex meeting that same day.

At one time the bank also delayed expansion plans citing the since-repealed HB2 “bathroom bill.”

Two decades ago, Deutsche Bank dreamed of competing with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in classic Wall Street business lines like investment banking. However, a sluggish European economy, post-financial crisis fines, costly new regulations and a reluctance to change all hurt its competitiveness.

“We tried to compete in nearly every corner of the banking market at the same time,” said CEO Christian Sewing last July in a CNN report. “We simply spread ourselves too thin.”

The company is now trying to return to its roots with its seventh major restructuring attempt since the financial crisis. However, the pandemic has hurt its business.

This April, it reported that its net income fell to 66 million euros ($72 million) in the first quarter. The bank said it was letting its financial buffers fall so it can maintain lending to clients but said the easing was temporary and modest.

With Cary jobs picture still unclear, Deutsche Bank makes last-ditch effort to save itself