Deutsche Bank to make more cuts as profits rise

FRANKFURT: German banking giant Deutsche Bank reported an increase in its first-quarter profits Thursday, as it announced new measures to reduce its costs.

The lender booked a net profit of 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) over the first three months of 2023, it said in a statement, an eight-percent increase on the same period last year.

Global revenues at the banking group rose by five percent to 7.7 billion euros as major central banks hiked interest rates.

Deutsche Bank’s non-interest costs rose by one percent over the same timeframe, while the group has said it aims to keep its expenditure essentially stable this year.

In order to increase its profitability further, the bank announced a series of “additional measures” to reduce costs.

These include “strict limitations” on hiring in non-client facing areas of the business and targeted reductions in management.

Deutsche Bank also wants to further downsize its technology centre in Russia, caught up in tensions over the invasion of Ukraine.

Between January and March this year, the group’s investment banking arm saw revenues drop sharply by 19 percent as compared with the same period in 2022. Asset management revenues similarly fell by 14 percent amid volatility on markets.

By contrast, revenues in corporate and private banking rose significantly, up 35 percent and 10 percent in the first quarter respectively.

“We are well on track to meeting or exceeding our 2025 targets” on the back of the first-quarter results, CEO Christian Sewing said in a statement.

The bank aims to improve its profitability, as measured by the return on tangible equity, to 10 percent by this date. In the first quarter of 2023, the key measure hit 8.3 percent.

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