Against the odds, in 2020 Deutsche Bank returns to profit for the first time since 2014. The leading German bank closes last year's accounts with a net result of 113 million euros, while analysts had forecast an average loss of 200 million (2019, moreover, had closed with a loss of 5,7 billion due to the heavy restructuring of recent years). Net profit stands at 624 million e the gross profit reaches one billion. Revenues net growth returned by 4%, to 24 billion (against 23,1 billion in 2019).
The result for 2020 is mainly due to the good performance of investment banking business, which reports adjusted gross profit of $3,3 billion, versus $929 million a year earlier. In addition, the cost-cutting allows the investment banking division to post a 32% increase in revenues to 9,8 billion, more than enough to offset the increase in provisions against risky loans due to the pandemic ( 1,9 billion).
Only in fourth quarter, Deutsche Bank hit a profit of 51 million, against the loss of 325 million expected by analysts.
“In the most important year of our transformation – said the managing director, Christian Sewing – we more than offset the effects of the plan and high loan provisions due to the global pandemic. We are confident that the positive trend will continue this year despite the challenging period”.
On the capital side, at the end of 2020 Deutsche Bank recorded a Cet1 by 13,6%, a figure of 316 basis points higher than the regulatory requirements requested by the ECB.
Mid-morning the Deutsche Bank Stock Exchange loses 1,36% in Frankfurt.
Germany's second largest institute has also published its accounts, Commerzbank, which closed 2020 with a loss of 2,3 billion euros, which compares with the 583 million profits realized in 2019. The last balance sheet was mainly affected by restructuring costs of 800 million euros and write-downs of 1,5, XNUMX billion.
The Bank has confirmed that the restructuring is far from finished: about 10 redundancies are on the way, along with the closure of hundreds of branches.
