Alexander von zur Muehlen, Deutsche Bank’s CEO for Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa and Germany / Courtesy of Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank has called on South Korea to make its financial markets easier to access and more predictable for global investors, arguing that deeper openness is now the key to attracting the international capital its world-class companies already draw.
In an exclusive interview with The Korea Times, Alexander von zur Muehlen, Deutsche Bank’s CEO for Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Germany, said few economies have cultivated such a dense cluster of globally competitive firms across strategically critical industries as Korea has.
“The next step is to make its financial markets as international as its companies,” said von zur Muehlen, who also sits on the bank’s management board. “Greater openness, simplicity and predictability can help broaden international participation.”
Korea has been steadily widening access for foreign investors, launching 24-hour foreign exchange trading in July. It also now allows overseas institutions to trade directly in its onshore currency market through the Registered Foreign Institution program, with Deutsche Bank among the first to take part.
The Bank of Korea further plans to introduce an offshore won settlement system in January 2027, which would let foreign investors trade the won among themselves using accounts held at banks in their home countries.
Von zur Muehlen said the country is moving in the right direction, noting that international investors prize liquidity, accessibility and regulatory certainty. “What matters now is consistent execution — reducing friction, increasing predictability and continuing to open the market,” he said.
He traveled to Korea on Oct. 29 to attend the 19th Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business in Seoul, and said the pace of change continues to impress him each time he returns.
Deutsche Bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, January 2019 / EPA-Yonhap
Bridging Korea and global markets
For Deutsche Bank, Korea’s deepening integration with the global economy represents its single largest growth opportunity in the country, according to von zur Muehlen. The lender has operated in Korea since 1978.
The bank intends to draw on its local operations and worldwide network to help Korean companies expand abroad — providing financing, strategic advice, payments, liquidity and risk management — while also opening the Korean market to international investors.
He pointed to a recent Deutsche Bank survey of major companies worldwide, which found that 98 percent of Korean respondents regard Europe as an important production base for their global operations, and 83 percent ranked Germany among their top three European destinations for planned investment.
The relationship also flows the other way, he added. Korean companies have become strategic partners for European firms in technology, manufacturing and innovation. Goods trade between Korea and Europe reached 124 billion euros in 2025, and roughly 540 German companies employ about 100,000 people in Korea.
“The bank was founded to facilitate trade between Germany and international markets, and connecting Europe and Asia has been part of our history almost from the beginning,” von zur Muehlen said, describing the business as “natural territory” for Deutsche Bank.
The decision in 2023 to commit an additional 150 million euros in capital to its Seoul branch has underpinned that expansion. Since then, the lender has widened its financing and banking services, including a return to Korea’s debt capital markets that same year.
The bank recently named Mok Jeong-wook, a 15-year industry veteran, as head of corporate coverage at its Seoul branch to support Korean clients pursuing global expansion.
“Three years on, I am even more convinced we made the right call,” von zur Muehlen said.
He added that Korea’s underlying strengths remain intact despite a recent sell-off by foreign investors in the benchmark KOSPI.
“I would distinguish between a market move and a change in the investment case,” he said. “I would focus much more on the direction of Korea’s structural reforms than on any single period of market volatility.”