Under pressure German lender Deutsche Bank, who last month reported a 6.8 billion euros full-year loss for 2015, has appointed a new CEO to lead the Australian operations.

Michael Ormaechea will take the top post covering Australia and New Zealand and will also take on regional responsibilities. 

Ormaechea takes over from James McMurdo who is now based in Hong Kong where since January he has been heading up Deutsche’s Asia-Pacific corporate and investment banking business. 

Challenging Environment

In November, McMurdo was promoted to head Deutsche’s Asia-Pacific corporate and investment bank, ending a short two-year stint as Australia chief after John Macfarlane retired in 2013.

Ormaechea takes over the top Australasian role against a backdrop of global strife for Germany’s top bank.

John Cryan, Deutsche’s new global co-chief who is busily restructuring the bank to try to offset challenging markets, litigation and burdensome regulatory changes, revealed recently that the bank was cutting the overall bonus pool.