The past two years have been difficult for commodities houses. Under pressure to reduce their balance sheets to meet Basel Ⅲ capital requirements and with the physical trading by banks of raw materials coming under increased scrutiny in the US and Europe, many firms have opted to cut their businesses. Deutsche Bank, which has long been one of the world's leading commodities banks, restructured part of its business last year. Always keen to maximise efficiency and return on equity, Deutsche decided to move out of areas where client activity was falling and unlikely to return in the near future. Thus it cut back in carbon emissions trading and European gas and power, the latter being a business line that was very physical and thus cost-intensive.
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