Newman told reporters the bank wanted to shed its traditional, but false, image of a mainly proprietorial trader in foreign exchange and derivatives markets and develop sophisticated investment banking businesses in emerging regions.
"I think Asia will be even more of an area of growth than Latin America," Newman said. Asia, including Australasia, at present accounts for a little less than a third of Bankers Trust's profits, which amounted to a net of US$164 million in the year to December 31, 1995.
Bankers Trust was an active player in the foreign exchange, derivatives and interest rate markets in the early 1990s but was then embroiled in a series of lawsuits over some of its dealings in these markets, which left it keen to diversify.
Earlier this year, the bank settled a high-profile lawsuit over derivatives dealings with Indonesia's PT Dharmala Sakti Sejahtera and then settled another multi-million-dollar suit with Procter and Gamble Co.
Newman said the bank was happy the lawsuits were behind it and now had to move on. "This is a rebuilding year, during which a lot of past problems have been cleared up," he said.
"Bankers Trust used to make a very large proportion of its earnings from trading derivatives, but...we are now a much more diversified company than we were."
"We want to concentrate on investment banking and investment management," he said. Bankers Trust Asia chairman, Tim Rattray, said there had been a significant drop in the proportion of income derived from proprietorial trading activities such as currencies, and this trend would continue. Within three to five years, about 20 percent of the bank's overall revenue and profit -- around half the level of a recent years -- would come from trading, he said.
