Deutsche Bank searching for replacement CEO

Wanted: A CEO who can turn around a decade-long slumping German bank.

That’s the billboard that Deutsche Bank’s board of directors should be taking out downtown.

The German über-bank is looking for candidates to replace dead man walking CEO John Cryan, who has not been fired as of yet.

Nevertheless, the search comes after three years during which Cryan could not get the bank back on the track to profitability, and had to pay billions in fines for past sins.

While no bankers are beating on the door at the 60 Wall St. headquarters, recruiters are floating names on nearly a daily basis.

Some of the names being bandied about are ex-JPMorgan exec Matt Zames, Richard Gnodde, who heads up Goldman Sachs’ international operations, and Bank of America’s Christian Meissner, who has global banking expertise.

Chairman Paul Achleitner’s decision to name former NYSE, CIT Group and Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain to the board appears to be a move to gain access to his Rolodex and be able to wine and dine prospective candidates.

“They’re playing with fire by having a public fight between CEO and chairman,” Davide Serra, CEO of Algebris Investments, told Bloomberg. “It’s just the wrong way to manage an institution.”