Other large banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, revised their policies to reflect a broader pullback from coal mining. Deutsche Bank had said that it would no longer finance so-called mountaintop removal projects, which involve extracting coal from the surface of mountains, often leaving large gashes in the landscape. But its public policy stopped short of the commitment to a broad retreat that many of the other large banks had made. Banks are leaving coal for economic reasons, too. Just a few years ago, coal was surging, swept up in a global commodity craze, as mining companies sought to satisfy a seemingly insatiable demand from China. As recently as 2011, the top 10 investment banks in the sector took in more than $1.6 billion in investment banking revenue from metals and mining deals globally, including coal deals. By 2015, that total had fallen to just $820 million, according to Dealogic. The American coal industry, in particular, is now suffering a plague of bankruptcies. Power utilities are increasingly turning to cheap natural gas and renewable energy sources such as solar and wind to replace coal. Demand for coal from China has also cooled as its economy slows and the Chinese government tries to shift to cleaner energy sources. In the first three months of the year, American coal production plummeted to the lowest levels in 35 years, in large part because the winter was so warm. And the spring brought no respite. May’s production of 50 million tons represented a 28 percent decline from May 2015, according to the Energy Department. In recent days, Murray Energy, a coal giant based in Ohio, sent notices to its employees that said it could be forced to lay off 80 percent of its work force, or roughly 4,400 employees, across six states because of the widespread depression in the industry. On Thursday, Alpha Natural Resources — which acquired the former Massey Energy in 2011 — received a judge’s approval to exit bankruptcy. As part of a deal in the bankruptcy with the Sierra Club and other environmental groups in West Virginia, Alpha agreed to give 53 million tons of its coal to a nonprofit group for the purpose of its never being mined or burned — a sign of just how little value this commodity holds at the moment.
Deutsche Bank has become the latest big-name organisation to pull back from the coal industry, following Bank of America and JP Morgan. Recently, six senior members of Deutsche Bank’s staff, responsible for coal deals, moved to New York firm Jefferies. The German company has no plans to replace them. It's another blow for the beleaguered coal industry, as investment from banks has slipped from $1.6bn in 2011 to $820m in 2015.