Deutsche Bank posts a surprise profit on strong investment bank performance

cnbc.com:

LONDON — Deutsche Bank on Thursday defied market expectations to post a profit for the fourth quarter of 2021, as investment bank revenues rose.

The German lender said profit attributable to shareholders came in at 145 million euro ($162.7 million) for the final three months of the year — almost triple its profit for the same period in 2020, and marking a sixth consecutive quarter of profit.

Analysts had expected a quarterly loss of 127.58 million euros, according to Refinitiv estimates.

The quarterly figures took Deutsche Bank's full-year net profit for 2021 to 1.94 billion euros after a strong first half to the year. This was up from 113 million euros in 2020 and above analyst projections of 1.79 billion euros.

Several of the bank's Wall Street peers, such as JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, have endured a disappointing earnings season as higher costs and moderating revenues squeezed margins.

However, Deutsch Bank's investment bank division saw quarterly revenues climb to 1.9 billion euros, up 1% year-on-year, as a 14% fall in fixed income and currency (FIC) trading was offset by 29% growth in origination and advisory revenues.

Here are the other quarterly highlights:

For the full-year, net profit hit 2.5 billion euros, the bank's highest figure since 2011.

«In 2021, we increased our net profit fourfold and delivered our best result in ten years while putting almost all of our expected transformation costs behind us,» Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing said in a statement.

«All four core businesses performed at or ahead of our plan, and our reduction of legacy assets progressed faster than expected.»

Sewing said this progress and financial performance provided a «strong step-off point» to achieve the bank's target of a