City bank faces race discrimination lawsuit

Investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort faces a £10m lawsuit after former employee Malcolm Perry claimed he was sacked for not being German.

Australian-born Perry, who lost his job as head of the investment bank’s fixed income division last year, told an employment tribunal that the bank’s German parent company, insurance group Allianz, wanted to make the restructured firm ‘more German’.

Dresdner, which has admitted unfair dismissal, vigorously denies the claims. “It is simply not the case that staff or management have to be German or German speaking at Dresdner Kleinwort to get on,” said a spokesperson for the firm. “We are a cosmopolitan and diverse organisation with 70 different nationalities internationally. We are confident that the tribunal will see this case for what it is.”

Dresdner Kleinwort’s 16-strong executive committee consists of nine German speakers and nine different nationalities.