The head of products for Deutsche Bank's retail branch network is in an ebullient mood despite the poor publicity his institution has recently suffered on home soil. At the beginning of the year, his branch staff were overwhelmed by customer queries about the temporary closure of a €6bn open-ended real estate fund, which faced valuation problems.

But Dominic Blum, responsible for all products sold to Deutsche's 8.5m private and business clients in Germany, and another 5m elsewhere, knows how a situation can be turned round. A bold move by his boss, Rainer Neske, soon after being appointed global head of his department in March 2003, to introduce a system of "guided" or "controlled architecture" in Deutsche branches was immensely unpopular at the time.