Deutsche Bank's Assets Rise

Tom Burroughes

29 April 2019

, which last week announced it had abandoned merger talks with rival German lender Commerzbank, has reported that assets under management rose to €1.208 trillion ($1.35 trillion) at the end of March, a rise of €70 billion during the first three months of 2019.

The rise was driven by net inflows of €10 billion, rising markets and favourable exchange rate moves, the Frankfurt-listed bank said.

The private and commercial bank (PCB) operations logged a rise in AuM of €29 billion in the quarter, of which €14 billion were in wealth management, Deutsche Bank said.

PCB’s increase included about €8 billion of net inflows. Asset Management’s assets under management increased by €42 billion including net inflows of €2 billion, or €7 billion excluding cash products.

Deutsche's report came a day after it had announced that merger talks with Commerzbank had been abandoned. For weeks, there had been speculation that Germany's two largest banks might join up. Both banks have at time struggled with issues around profitability.

Private and commercial bank
PCB's net revenues were €2.5 billion, down 5 per cent year-on-year. Revenues were flat excluding specific items, as growth in loan volumes offset the negative impact of continued deposit margin compression.

In the Private & Commercial Business (Germany), revenues were €1.7 billion, down by 7 per cent on a reported basis and up 2 per cent if adjusted for the non-recurrence of a specific item consisting of a €156 million gain on the sale of a property in the prior year quarter. Growth in business volumes offset deposit margin compression.

The Private & Commercial Business (International) generated revenues of €359 million, down 4 per cent year-on-year. Growth in loan revenues and re-pricing measures were more than offset by the non-recurrence of a small asset sale in the prior year quarter and a change in the treatment of loan fees in Italy.

Wealth Management revenues were €427 million, stable year-on-year, and down 7% per cent if adjusted for the specific item consisting of gains on workout activities relating to legacy Sal Oppenheim positions.