Josef Ackermann better watch out the next time he visits the Eurotower.

It appears Mario Draghi, ECB president, hasn’t taken too kindly to comments made by Deutsche Bank chief executive last week.

Mr Ackermann told analysts last Thursday that Deutsche Bank had not taken part in the ECB’s first offering of three-year loans in December and was reluctant to be seen as needing help. This from the FT’s James Wilson in Frankfurt:

“The fact that we have never taken any money from the government has made us, from a reputational point of view, so attractive to so many clients in the world that we would be very reluctant to give that up,” [Mr Ackermann] told analysts.

The ECB has been keen to dispel any suggestion that a stigma is attached to participation in the auctions for three-year loans, the next of which to be held at the end of this month. And when quizzed on the topic at today’s presser, the usually unfazed Mr Draghi lashed out with the sort of rant that we had come to know and love from his predecessor. Read more