Frankfurt, July 28, (dpa/GNA) – Deutsche Bank continued to do good business in the second quarter of the current year and posted its best interim result since 2015.
Pre-tax profits of around 1.2 billion euros (1.38 billion dollars) were on the books at the end of June, the Frankfurt-based group announced on Wednesday.
Interest payments for certain bonds still have to be deducted from the after-tax profit of 828 million euros, leaving Deutsche Bank shareholders with a bottom-line profit of 692 million euros.
A year earlier, Germany’s largest financial institution had been just in the black before these interest payments, but after deducting them, Deutsche Bank shareholders were left with a minus of 77 million euros in the interim balance sheet.
“Our pre-tax profit of 1.2 billion euros in the second quarter demonstrates that we’re well on the path toward our goal for a post-tax return on tangible equity of 8 per cent next year,” said CEO Christian Sewing.
All business areas had become more profitable, he added.
However, the Group’s income – total revenue – was just under the sum of the previous year’s quarter at some 6.24 billion euros.
Among other things, the ruling of the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) on bank fees had an impact.
The BGH had ruled at the end of April that banks must obtain the consent of their customers when making changes to general terms and conditions.
Many bank customers can now claim back part of the fees they overpaid, and many institutions are refunding money.
Because the restructuring of the bank, including the reduction of thousands of jobs, is progressing well and the economic environment is stabilizing, management is increasingly optimistic.
For the year as a whole, the board of directors expects slightly higher earnings and less risk provisioning for possible loan defaults than previously expected.
GNA