[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

Deutsche Bank is 3 traders and 1 debt salesman short after Europe's biggest bank by assets began cutting costs by €4.5 billion ($5.8 billion).  Its stated goal is to increase its after-tax return on equity to at least 12% by 2015.  What that will mean at the German bank: the elimination of 1,900 jobs, including 1,500 at the investment bank and support areas.

Who's leaving this week:

• Brad Visokey, a bank employee since 2004, who traded credit-default swaps tied to lenders and automakers at the New York office.
• Robert Lam, at Deutsche Bank since 2008, who handled swaps on insurance companies, also in New York
• Christopher Park, a credit trading VP
• James Bertoni, an associate debt salesman

According to two people familiar with the matter who asked not to identified because they haven’t been announced, they follow the departure of 11 other debt traders since the beginning of last year, amid declining revenue. Recent departures include Nicholas Pappas, the former co-head of flow credit trading in North America, last week, and Antoine Cornut, who oversaw flow-credit trading in the Americas and Europe, in July.

For further details, go to [Bloomberg, 9/11/12].