Dresdner Kleinwort has disbanded its digital markets business a year after the division was launched to overhaul technology at the German-owned bank. Sean Park, who ran the operation, will leave.

His departure comes after JP Rangaswami, chief information officer who oversaw the launch of digital markets, left last week. The digital markets operation, which brought together the bank's capital markets technology groups, was shut in July following a review of Dresdner Kleinwort's businesses by Jens Peter Neumann, who took over as head of capital markets from Stephen Bellotti in March. A financial market source said: "Dresdner has one of the highest cost-to-income ratios and, to get that down, it was felt it had to cut complexity out of the business. Digital markets didn't fit with that vision of simplicity." The technology operation was in the first 12 months of what was a three-year to five-year development plan, according to the source. "The plan was in its early stages; Dresdner has reversed everything that was done this year. It was a restructuring that has been restructured," he said. Closing the project is understood to only affect jobs "in single figures", he added. Dresdner Kleinwort declined to comment. Park, who was head of digital markets at Dresdner, leaves this month. He joined Dresdner Kleinwort Benson from BNP Paribas in 2000, was initially appointed global head of debt syndicate and later took responsibility for credit flow products. He moved to set up the digital markets business last year. He began his career at CCF in Paris in 1990 as an M&A analyst but moved on to the trading floor within a year and joined BNP Paribas in 1993. Rangaswami left after five years as chief information officer at Dresdner Kleinwort. A source close to the bank said he stood down from the role in March but remained as a special adviser and was appointed head of alternative market models. He is understood to have joined BT's global financial services division.