A Deutsche Bank AG flag flies out of the company’s office on Wall Street in New York City.
Mark Kauzlarich | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Deutsche Bank on Thursday exceeded earnings expectations for 2020, when it emerges from the coronavirus crisis, led by strong performance in its investment banking division.
The leading German lender posted a net profit of 113 million euros for the full year ($ 135.7 million), while analysts expected a loss of 201 million euros, according to Refinitiv. Deutsche reported a loss of 5.7 billion euros for 2019, as it underwent a major restructuring.
The bank made a profit of 51 million euros during the fourth quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of a loss of 325 million euros.
The bank’s chief financial officer, James von Moltke, told CNBC shortly after the announcement that he had achieved all of his goals for the year.
Higher revenues and reduced costs helped Deutsche’s investment banking division perform well, with net revenues rising 32% to € 9.8 billion in 2020.
This “more than offset the increase in the provision for credit losses arising from COVID-19,” the bank said in a statement.
These are the other highlights:
- Total net income for the fourth quarter was 5.5 billion euros, compared to 5,355 million euros in the same period in 2019, which brought the group’s net income for the year to 24 billion of euros, 4% more than in 2019.
- The equity common tier 1 (CET1) ratio, a measure of bank solvency, stood at 13.6%, unchanged from the fourth quarter of 2019.
- Provisions for loan losses in the fourth quarter were 251 million, compared to 723 million in the last quarter of 2019.
“In the most important year of our transformation, we were able to more than offset the transformation-related effects and high credit provisions, despite the global pandemic,” Christian Sewing CEO said in the earnings report.
“We have built a solid foundation for sustainable profitability and we are confident that this overall positive trend will continue in 2021, despite these difficult times.”
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