Deutsche Bank posts €92mln loss in Q3

PanARMENIAN.Net - Deutsche Bank lost 92 million euros ($116 million) in the third quarter as the bank faced ongoing financial burdens from lawsuits, new regulations and its effort to shed risky past investments, the Associated Press reports.

Germany's biggest bank also said Wednesday, Oct 29, that it would move its chief financial officer, Stefan Krause, to a new job in charge of strategy and replace him with a Goldman Sachs executive.

The net loss for the quarter ending Sept. 30 compares to a profit of 51 million euros in the same period a year ago, and to a profit of 238 million in the second quarter. Net third-quarter revenues rose 2 percent to 7.864 billion.

The bank said that set-asides for possible losses from litigation against it had also "materially impacted" its result.

The bank's shares fell 0.44 percent to 25.14 euros in morning trading in Europe, according to the AP.

Deutsche Bank has faced costs from investigations into allegations of past misconduct, including probes of possible manipulation of interest-rate and foreign exchange benchmarks. It has also come under regulatory and market pressure to strengthen its finances, leading the bank to raise 8.5 billion euros in June by issuing new shares.

Along with other big banks, Deutsche Bank has had to devote employee time to compliance with increasing government regulations aimed at stabilizing the banking system and preventing more financial crises. Those included the year-long comprehensive review of bank finances by the European Central Bank, which concluded Sunday. The ECB went through thousands of individual loan portfolios to test whether bank assets were as solid as reported. Deutsche Bank passed the test.

Compensation and benefits were up by 285 million euros, or 10 percent, from 3.2 billion euros a year ago. The bank said that was from fixed compensation costs for complying with regulations as well as hiring additional staff in control functions.

As part of the effort to strengthen its finances, the bank recorded 1.049 billion euros in losses during the quarter from its non-core operations unit. That is where it has placed risky assets and investments that it is selling off or winding down to strengthen its overall finances.