Deutsche Bank has confirmed plans to cut 18,000 jobs across its global business, with the layoffs coming two months after the company’s chief executive, Christian Sewing, promised shareholders tough cutbacks to save over €1bn.

The German Bank intends to completely exit activities related to the buying and selling of shares.

The revelations about Volkswagen’s emissions fraud, added to recent scandals at Siemens and Deutsche Bank, show a German corporate establishment that is out of step with a society that is actively trying to atone for 20th-century sins, writes Leonid Bershidsy