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Germany's Largest Bank Reports Q4 Loss, Outflows From Wealth, Asset Arm; AuM Rises
Tom Burroughes
28 January 2016
, Germany's largest bank, logged a net loss of €2.1 billion ($2.28 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2015 and a full-year loss of €6.1 billion with restructuring and other costs pushing figures into the red. After seven consecutive quarters of net new asset inflows, however, Deutsche's wealth and asset management arm suffered a net outflow of €4 billion in Q4, verus a net inflow of €10 billion a year before. Earlier in January, Deutsche Bank, which has made leadership changes and restructured to boost profitability over recent months, said it aims to be one of the world's top five wealth managers. An intermal memo from Fabrizio Campelli, global head of wealth management, did not spell out how the bank intends to set the goal. Campelli reportedly said the bank's priorities were investing to minimise risks in a "challenging regulatory and control environment", investing in a modern and resilient operating model and building the business around the needs of clients. The bank has previously set out the target of being a top-five wealth manager. Scorpio Partnership, the consultancy, ranked the firm at 12th for its survey on data for 2014, down from eighth in 2012. UBS is the world’s largest wealth manager in those rankings for 2014.
Results were more encouraging in the Frankfurt-listed bank's wealth and asset management arm, however, where it reported €1.4 billion of net revenues in Q4 2015, up from €1.2 billion in the year before. This segment of the bank had €1.1 trillion of invested assets at the end of last year, a gain of 8 per cent from a year earlier.
Revenues in wealth and asset management were €1.4 billion in 4Q 2015, up 14 per cent year-on-year, reflecting cumulative net money inflows totalling €70 billion across 2014 and 2015.
The banking group reported litigation charges of €1.2 billion, and restructuring/severances of €800 million in the final three months of the year.
Last week, the bank said it had expected to make losses and that challenging conditions in the final quarter of last year contributed to a year-on-year drop in revenues, mainly in the corporate banking and securities areas.
At a group level, net revenues fell 15 per cent year-on-year to €6.6 billion in Q4; non-interest expenses rose 24 per cent to €9 billion.
“In 2015 we made considerable progress on the implementation of our strategy. The much-needed decisions we took in the second half of the year contributed to a net loss for the fourth quarter and full year. We are focused on 2016 and continue to work hard to clear up our legacy issues. Restructuring work and investment in our platform will continue throughout the year," said John Cryan, co-chief executive.