Deutsche Bank Appoints Stefan Schaffer as CEO of India Operations
4 JUNE 2025 / 2 min read
Deutsche Bank has named Stefan Schaffer as the new Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche India, its Global Capability Centre (GCC), effective immediately. Schaffer will succeed Dilipkumar Khandelwal, who stepped down recently to pursue opportunities in the startup space.
His appointment underscores the bank’s strategic investment in India as a global technology and innovation hub.
With a career spanning enterprise technology, startup innovation, and global operations, Schaffer brings over five years of experience at Deutsche Bank, having served in multiple senior leadership roles. These include Managing Director and Central CIO for Private Banking and Head of the Bucharest Technology Centre. Most recently, he was the Managing Director and Head of Shared Applications and Services, where he focused on simplifying Deutsche Bank’s tech infrastructure through reuse strategies and shared capabilities, aligned with the bank’s engineering and architecture manifesto.
Deutsche India, established in 2005, is one of the bank’s most critical global delivery hubs. Employing over 20,000 people across Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, and Jaipur, the India GCC supports Deutsche Bank’s global businesses and infrastructure functions across technology, operations, finance, and risk.
India plays a vital role in Deutsche Bank’s global technology strategy. With more than 8,000 engineers in India and parallel hubs in Berlin, Bucharest, and Cary (USA), the country serves as a powerhouse for innovation, scalability, and digital transformation.
The appointment comes as India’s GCC landscape continues to grow, with over 1,760 GCCs currently operating in the country and employing nearly 1.9 million professionals. The sector is expected to expand to 2,200 GCCs and 2.8 million employees by 2029, driven by India’s strong talent pool and supportive ecosystem.
“With his strong global track record and passion for enterprise transformation, Stefan is ideally positioned to drive our India operations and global technology centres into the next phase of growth and innovation,” the bank said.
Schaffer’s dual role will enable him to influence enterprise-wide tech strategies and governance globally, reinforcing Deutsche Bank’s commitment to India as a strategic centre of excellence for technology, innovation, and leadership development.
