* Hiring to take place globally, across products
* Prime finance a focus of hiring spree
* Deutsche had lost ground in equities sales and trading (Adds details, background)
By Olivia Oran and Arno Schuetze
LONDON/FRANKFURT, March 24 (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank is hiring about 100 people to boost its equitiestrading operations as it seeks to recover ground in an area seenas vital to its new strategy, a source familiar with the mattertold Reuters.
The move comes as Deutsche, a traditional bond tradingpowerhouse, looks to improve profitability by shifting businessto less capital intensive areas such as equity trading.
The hiring process, which has started recently, will beef upoperations in the United States, Europe and Asia and acrossproduct groups, with an emphasis on technology and electronictrading, the source said.
Deutsche is also looking to improve its prime financedepartment, which helps hedge funds finance their positions,deploying more people and capital to it, a second source said.
A spokesman for Deutsche declined to comment on the firm'sstrategy. The bank employed 101,000 people at the end of 2015but did not give a figure for equity trading.
Chief Executive John Cryan has urged investors to havepatience as the overhaul of Germany's biggest lender is expectedto peak this year, following a record loss in 2015.
He acknowledged in January that Deutsche had lost momentumin equities sales and trading and vowed to invest in the unit,just as European rivals are scaling back their own securitiesdivisions.
Deutsche's revenue from trading stocks fell 28 percent to520 million euros ($581 million) in the fourth quarter from ayear earlier, with a significant drop in equity derivativesweighing while prime services had a positive reading.
Credit Suisse meanwhile said on Wednesday it would shaveanother 800 million Swiss francs ($822 million) off costs andcut 2,000 more jobs at its Global Markets division, where itsees trading revenues dropping by 40 to 45 percent in the firstquarter. It added, however, that it would continue to build itscash equities and prime finance business.
The Swiss bank as well as peer UBS areconcentrating on their wealth management business and Barclays has large retail banking operations, while DeutscheBank has said it is sticking with a focus on investment banking.
Deutsche Bank's finance chief had said earlier this weekthat the first two months of 2016 were the worst start to a yearfor banks in general that he has seen in his bankingcareer.
Data published by Coalition, an industry analytics firm, onThursday shows that Deutsche maintained its position as one ofthe top five global investment banks in 2015, taking the secondrank in Europe after J.P. Morgan and the number one spot inAsia.
Globally, it remained the third largest player in fixedincome, currencies and commodities, while it fell behind inequities, the data showed.
($1 = 0.8953 euros)
($1 = 0.9736 Swiss francs) (Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Keith Weir)
Barclays (BARC)
