Deutsche Bank posts first annual net profit since 2014

FRANKFURT AM MAIN: German giant Deutsche Bank posted Thursday its first annual profit in six years, boosted by strong gains at its investment banking division, the one time problem child of the business.

Net profit for 2020 reached 113 million euros, while for the fourth quarter of the year, net earnings came in at 51 million euros.

The bank nevertheless set aside close to 1.8 billion euros in provisions in 2020 to cope with the risk of credit losses -- around 2.5 times more than in 2019 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Net revenues at its investment bank rose 32 percent to 9.3 billion euros during the year.

Profit before tax for the division reached 3.2 billion euros, six times that of 2019.

Cheering the results, Deutsche Bank chief executive officer Christian Sewing said: "In the most important year of our transformation, we were able to more than offset transformation-related effects and elevated credit provisions despite the global pandemic."

The group lost 5.72 billion euros in 2019, its fifth consecutive net loss and in July announced a major restructuring plan.

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

As a result, the investment bank was heavily hit in Sewing's restructuring plan in which about a fifth of the group's total staff were to depart by 2022.

After the gains booked in 2020, Sewing said he expected the positive momentum to carry through into 2021.

"We have built firm foundations for sustainable profitability and are confident that this overall positive trend will continue in 2021 despite these challenging times," he said.