Deutsche Bank records biggest profit in a decade

Germany’s largest lender Deutsche Bank on Thursday announced it had booked its highest profit in 10 years, driven by its investment arm after a difficult period of restructuing.

In 2021, Deutsche Bank recorded a 1.9 billion euro ($2.1 billion) net profit, having posted a more slender 100 million euro margin in 2020, as the world economy was buffeted by the first waves of the coronavirus pandemic.

The result was achieved while putting “almost all” of Deutsche’s transformation costs behind it, said CEO Christian Sewing.

The bank was reaping the rewards of the strategic overhaul it decided on in July 2019, turning its focus more Europe and withdrawing from riskier businesses.

The bank’s positive result in 2020 was the first it had recorded since 2014.

Its worst-ever year came in 2016, when it lost 6.8 billion euros, mostly related to investment banking activities in the years around the financial crisis.

The bank’s restructuring involves shedding 18,000 jobs between 2019 and 2022 to reduce the number of employees globally to 74,000.

In 2021, revenues at the bank climbed six percent to 25.4 billion euros.

In its flagship investment arm, receipts were up four percent to 9.6 billion euros, pulled by its advisory work, with profits before tax rising 17 percent to 3.7 billion euros.

Deutsche’s corporate banking activities saw its pre-tax profit rise to one billion euros, up 86 percent, while its private bank followed up last years pre-tax loss with a 366-million-euro profit.

At the same time, Deutsche Bank’s asset management division saw its taxable profits rise 50 percent to 816 million euros.

Shareholders will be rewarded with a dividend of 0.20 euros per share for 2021, as Deutsche Bank announced on Wednesday, after two years where it was not paid out.

In the fourth quarter of 2021, the group booked a net profit of 145 million euros, almost triple its result in the same quarter in 2020.

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