Marcus Vitt was already there when Donner & Reuschel didn't even exist. In 2002, Vitt joined Conrad Hinrich Donner Bank, which is part of the Signal Iduna Group, and became a member of its board. Seven years later, the Hamburg-based Bankhaus Donner took over its competitor Reuschel & Co.

Commerzbank, which was supported by the state during the financial crisis, had to sell the Munich private bank due to EU requirements in the course of the takeover of the Dresdner Bank. By April 2010 Vitt was CEO of Donner & Reuschel AG.

He will leave this position in late summer. Vitt wrote in an internal email that he asked the supervisory board not to extend his management contract at the end of the year. The committee agreed to his wish to say goodbye to the board at the end of September. He will nevertheless remain associated with the bank as an advisor. Vitt, born on March 4, 1966, in Siegen, explains his motivation for this step. He wanted to „take on another new challenge“ in the banking industry.

After training as a bank clerk, Vitt started his professional career at BfG Bank in the late 1980s. In 1995, he moved to Berliner Volksbank before moving to the private bank in January 2002.

„It was an exciting time and I was able to shape a lot," Vitt says of his 22 years at the bank. Since 2002, the bank's total assets have increased more than sixfold, net interest income has increased tenfold, and the number of employees has roughly tripled.

Martin Berger, Signal Iduna CFO and chairman of the supervisory board of the private bank said that Vitt, as the „architect of Donner & Reuschel“, made the bank what it is today. „We would like to thank Marcus Vitt for his remarkably successful work," he said. In addition to the takeover of Reuschel, Vitt was responsible for taking over the depository business of the Hamburg private bank Berenberg. During the low interest rate phase, he significantly expanded the commission business. „Donner & Reuschel is positioned in the market as a private bank with a clear profile and is therefore well positioned for the future," said Berger.

Vitt is well-connected in the northern Germany financial landscape. The 58-year-old's mandates included chairing the Hamburg Banking Association in 2014, which merged with the regional associations of Bremen and Lower Saxony to form the North German Banking Association in 2021. Vitt gave up the chairmanship in 2023. At the end of 2022, in the election of the Stock Exchange Council of the Hamburg Stock Exchange, he was elected chairman of the central stock exchange body for the period from 2023 to 2025. Vitt could continue to hold this position even after he leaves Donner & Reuschel.

The fact that departure of the long-standing board spokesman was accompanied by considerations for a possible merger of the Signal Iduna bank subsidiary with the private bank M.M., which is also based in Hamburg. Warburg & Co. was described as „speculation“ by those within the two firms.

However it is obvious that in the search for new investors for the Warburg Bank, which was shaken by the cum-ex scandal, a „Hamburg solution“ is being considered, an expert on the Hamburg banking landscape told Börsen-Zeitung. However, you should not start a merger process by removing the CEO of one of the banks that may be involved. „Mergers also have to be managed.“

The law firm Latham and the investment bankers from Perella Weinberg were hired for the sale process of Warburg Bank. According to financial circles, only information packages have been sent so far, and there are a handful of interested buyers but no offers yet. Non-binding offers are expected in a month or two.