Josef Ackermann, chairman of the board of the firm, said at a meeting before the Assembly of Honourable Merchants in Hamburg Tuesday that his firm is very concerned about keeping the trust of the consumers, while also supporting the country and Europe. Consumer criticism of banks needing bailouts will cause lawmakers to “introduce ever more restrictive and potentially dysfunctional rules for banking,” he said. “Therefore, we launched a thorough investigation of our products, processes and strategies to check if they serve the real economy.”

Ironically, Deutsche Bank acquired much of the asset management division in its $10.1 billion purchase in 1999 of New York City-based Bankers Trust, which had failed in part because of criminal practices.

Ackermann himself is on the way out. As of May, he will become supervisory board chairman, and Deutsche executives Anshu Jain and Juergen Fitschen will share duties as co-CEOs. Reports say that the recent review has the stamp of the desires of these men.

In the bank’s statement, Kevin Parker, global head of asset management, said the aim is to find the best strategic option for the asset management division. “The outcome of this review will be driven first and foremost by our fiduciary duty to, and the interests of, our clients,” Parker said. The company has more than 100,000 employees in 73 countries.

Large real estate offerings are abounding globally. Earlier this month, London-based DTZ, a global real estate firm with offices in 145 cities in 43 countries, selected Sydney-based UGL Ltd. as a preferred bidder to take over the company.

The combined potential firm of DTZ and the UGL Services could create one of the world’s largest real estate services operations, with a combined pro forma revenue of about $1.6 billion. It was reported that UGL made an offer, but in a statement today the company denied it has made an offer, and said it would make a decision about an offer by Dec. 6.