Deutsche Bank may face soon be forced to shrink its U.S. operations as part of a mortgage settlement.  That would be painful even for a bank that has written down most of the billions in goodwill left from its 1999 takeover of Bankers Trust that brought it into the U.S. in a big way.  Deutsche has all along struggled to make money there.

DB's U.S. assets stood at more than $400 billion in early 2014, but have declined to around $260 billion, according to the Federal Reserve.  The shrinkage has caused DB to lose market share to rivals, slipping to 9^th place in league tables for all investment bank and trading revenue.

Securities trading revenue in the U.S. is more important and, in 2015, the country accounted for 34% of global markets and investment banking business combined. But Deutsche has already decided to focus on European clients that want to access U.S. markets rather than chasing U.S.-based clients, particularly U.S. institutional investor clients not among the largest global groups.