Deutsche Bank AG headquarters in the financial district of Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, February 1, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Deutsche Bank on Thursday reported a 10% rise in first-quarter profit, beating expectations as the investment banking unit continues to recover.
Net income attributable to shareholders came in at 1.275 billion euros ($1.365 billion), beating analysts’ forecasts for the same period of 1.23 billion euros, according to LSEG data.
Deutsche Bank said this was its best first-quarter profit since 2013. This is also the bank’s 15th consecutive quarterly profit.
Group revenue rose 1% year-on-year to 7.8 billion euros, which the bank attributed to strong performance in fixed income and currencies, as well as higher fees and commission income. Sales also exceeded analysts’ expectations of 7.73 billion euros, LSEG said.
The investment bank’s revenue rose 13% to 3 billion euros, up from a 9% slump in the full year to 2023, which held down overall profits. This performance revived the division as Deutsche Bank’s most profitable division due to growth in lending and credit trading revenues.
Other first quarter highlights include:
- Net inflows for the private banking and asset management divisions combined were 19 billion euros.
- Provisions for credit losses amounted to 439 million euros, down from 488 million euros in the fourth quarter of 2023.
- The Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio, a measure of a bank’s solvency, was 13.4%, compared with 13.6% in the same period last year.
“In fact, we see momentum in all four businesses and we think it’s sustainable,” Deutsche Bank Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach on Thursday. “There is,” he said.
“We delivered on our cost and capital return commitments in the quarter.”
Germany’s largest financial institution reported a net profit of 1.3 billion euros last quarter and 1.16 billion euros in the first quarter of last year.
The bank aims to improve operational efficiency by €2.5 billion in 2023 to improve profitability and increase shareholder returns, and announced it will cut 3,500 jobs over the next few years.
