Germany's largest lender announced its plans for a partial IPO of the unit in March as part of a broader restructuring of the bank reeling from law suits and trading scandals.

Nicolas Moreau, a board member who oversees Deutsche Asset Management, said in an email to staff seen by Reuters, that Swiss regulator FINMA had approved the establishment of Deutsche Asset Management (Schweiz) AG.

The new entity incorporates the existing Swiss asset management activities formerly part of Deutsche Bank (Suisse) S.A.

"We continue to make excellent progress with our IPO preparations and achieve notable milestones in our preparations," Moreau said in the note.

John Cryan, Deutsche's CEO, has said the bank would maintain a "controlling and super-majority stake" in the business.

The sale would take place at some point over the next two years, Deutsche said at the time, and could raise 2 billion euros (1.78 billion pounds).

Deutsche hopes that by giving its asset management unit more operational independence the unit will be more attractive to talent.

Deutsche Asset Management has more than 700 billion euros invested worldwide.

(Reporting by Oliver Hirt; Writing by Tom Sims; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)