Deutsche Bank has appointed Stefan Schaffer as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Deutsche India, its Global Capability Centre (GCC), signaling a continued strategic investment in India’s role as a global technology and innovation hub. In addition to his new role, Schaffer will also serve as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Corporate Functions and Head of Global Technology Centers at Deutsche Bank.
Schaffer succeeds Dilipkumar Khandelwal, who stepped down recently to explore opportunities in the startup space. With a distinguished 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
- Head of the Bucharest Technology Centre
- Most recently, 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.
His appointment is seen as a move to consolidate the bank’s global tech transformation under a proven leader with deep cross-cultural and operational expertise.
Established in 2005, Deutsche India is one of the bank’s most critical global delivery hubs. With over 20,000 employees across Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, and Jaipur, the center supports Deutsche Bank’s global businesses and infrastructure across technology, operations, finance, and risk.
India plays a vital role in Deutsche Bank’s global technology strategy. With 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.
“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 noted.
Schaffer’s appointment comes amid strong momentum in India’s Global Capability Centre (GCC) landscape. According to NASSCOM, India now hosts over 1,760 GCCs employing nearly 1.9 million professionals, with the sector expected to grow to 2,200 GCCs and 2.8 million employees by 2029.
Supporting this growth, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has initiated efforts to streamline operations for multinationals by forming an industry-led panel to develop a national framework for GCC expansion in India.
Schaffer’s elevation underscores Deutsche Bank’s long-term commitment to India—not just as a back-office support hub, but as a strategic center of excellence for technology, innovation, and leadership development. His dual role as CIO for Corporate Functions and Head of Global Technology Centres also positions him to influence enterprise-wide tech strategies and governance globally.
With this leadership transition, Deutsche Bank reinforces its agenda to scale with speed, invest in engineering talent, and lead responsibly in a rapidly transforming financial and technology landscape.
