Deutsche Bank reports profit, job cuts

Deutsche Bank has posted a net profit of €1.158bn ($1.28bn) for Q1, defying market fears of a global banking crisis. The figure was comfortably above a consensus forecast of €864.54m produced by a Reuters poll of analysts and up from €1.06bn for the first quarter of 2022, marking an 11th straight quarter of profit. The results followed the completion of a restructuring plan launched in 2019 aimed at cutting costs and improving profitability.

The German lender’s corporate bank net revenues rose 35% year on year to €2bn for the quarter, the highest quarterly figure since the launch of its transformation programme. Net interest income drove growth, increasing by 71%. However, the report revealed job cuts for non-client facing staff and a sharper-than-expected 19% year-on-year fall in investment bank revenues.

Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing said the first-quarter results demonstrated the relevance of the bank’s “Global Hausbank” strategy to its clients, adding that it was well on track to meeting or exceeding its 2025 targets. He said the bank aimed to accelerate execution of the strategy by raising ambitions for operational and capital efficiency, seizing revenue growth opportunities and supporting shareholder distributions.

The bank also noted that deposits fell to €592bn over the course of the quarter from €621.5bn at the end of 2022. It attributed the decline to increased price competition, normalisation from elevated levels in the previous two quarters, and market volatility at the end of the quarter.