Deutsche Bank, a leading German financial services provider, released its financial results today for the first quarter of 2021. The bank reported a profit before tax of €1.6 billion as net profit reached €1 billion, the highest quarterly Group profit for seven years.
According to the official announcement, Deutsche Bank’s net revenues reached €7.2 billion in Q1 of 2021, which is a jump of approximately 14% compared to the same period in 2020. The German company posted strong growth across all businesses for the last three months.
Commenting on the latest announcement, Christian Sewing, Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank, said: “Our first quarter is further evidence that Deutsche Bank is on the right path in all four core businesses, and is building sustainable profitability. In addition to substantial revenue growth over an already-strong prior-year quarter, we demonstrated cost and risk discipline. We achieved a post-tax return on tangible equity of above 7%, and returns in the Core Bank are already ahead of our ambition for next year. These results give us confidence that we’ll reach our 2022 targets.”
The Frankfurt-based bank has recently established the emerging market FX trading engine in Singapore amid a surge in demand for the Chinese Yuan.
Growth in Investment Banking
Deutsche Bank highlighted strong growth in its investment banking division. The total profit before tax of the bank’s investment banking business touched €1.5 billion in Q1 of 2021, which is a significant jump of 134% compared to the same period in 2020. Furthermore, Deutsche Bank’s corporate banking division posted strong growth for the last three months as profit before tax reached €229 million, which is up by 90% compared to Q1 of 2020. The bank’s private banking and asset management businesses posted growth of 92% and 66%, respectively.
In Q4 of 2020, the bank reported a net profit of €189 million and posted significant growth in its fixed income and currency trading businesses. In December 2020, Deutsche Bank revealed its plan to cut jobs in the retail banking division.
