If any financial institution embodies what “too big to fail” means, it might be Germany’s Deutsche Bank.

The flagship lender in Europe’s largest economy, Deutsche is Europe’s biggest bank by assets, with a €2.2tn balance sheet that – in an era when many banks are shrinking – has grown 44 per cent in the past two years. Its acquisition of Postbank, Germany’s largest retail bank by customer numbers, has made it one of Europe’s biggest deposit-taking banks.

Deutsche has three times the assets of its nearest domestic rival. It is one of a handful of groups that have leading positions in virtually every segment of trading-driven investment banking in the US and Europe as well as in the fast-growing markets of Asia. What happens to Deutsche, in short, matters far beyond its Frankfurt twin towers headquarters or its London trading floors – and now the bank stands on the cusp of its first leadership change in a decade.