The Business On: Anshu Jain Head of Investment Banking, Deutsche Bank

In line for a promotion, we hear?

So it would seem: Deutsche needs a replacement for chief executive Josef Ackermann, who is due to quit in 2013. The bank's board met on Sunday and is understood to have backed Mr Jain and Jürgen Fitschen, head of the bank in Germany, as co-chief executives.

A job share? That's very modern.

It's a bit of a fudge, actually. Mr Jain would be the main man, which is fair enough given that the investment bank he runs produces 70 per cent of Deutsche's revenues.

So why does he need a sidekick?

Much as Mr Jain is eminently qualified for the job, he lacks one skill – the ability to speak German fluently. That doesn't go down too well in Germany, which is where Mr Fitschen comes in.

How has he managed never to learn his employer's language?

Well, he does speak a bit, but though he has worked for Deutsche since 1995, he's never spent much time in Germany itself, because the action in investment banking is elsewhere. He currently works in London.

How has he risen to the top?

Indian-born, Mr Jain did an MBA at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He went to work on Wall Street and was one of the recruits picked by Edson Mitchell, the banker who spearheaded Deutsche's push into investment banking during the Nineties. Mr Mitchell was killed in an aircraft crash – Mr Jain still has a portrait of his mentor on his office wall.

Any other idiosyncrasies his new staff ought to be aware of?

Those Deutsche staff who don't know anything about cricket might be well advised to mug up on the lbw rules. Mr Jain is a cricket nut who captains the bank's team and used to have a stake in the Mumbai Indians, the Indian Premier League cricket team owned by Mukesh Ambani.

Will he be a popular choice?

Not necessarily with everyone: Mr Ackermann, for example, is thought to have wanted ex-Bundesbank boss Axel Weber to succeed him – but he went to UBS instead.