BERLIN, May 8 (Xinhua) -- The German financial institute Commerzbank continued to experience solid growth during the first quarter (Q1) of 2018, its chief executive officer Martin Zielke revealed on Tuesday.
Speaking at Commerzbank's Annual General Meeting in Frankfurt, Zielke emphasized that quarterly revenue at the Dax-listed company remained stable at the start of the year in spite of tough competition.
"We were able to expand our customer basis as planned, both in private and in corporate banking," Zielke added. Commerzbank is scheduled to release official earnings figures for Q1 2018 on May 15.
Commerzbank recorded disappointing net profits of 156 million euros (185 million U.S. dollars) in 2017, a development which largely owed to costs resulting from planned lay-offs of around 7,300 out of a total of 36,000 staff until 2020.
The Frankfurt-based bank is Germany's fourth largest financial institute and made international headlines back in 2008 when it had to be rescued with a partial nationalization during the global financial crisis.
According to Zielke, however, Commerzbank has now finally turned the corner on its commercial woes and will consequently pay out a dividend again to shareholders in 2018. Leaving aside a small dividend of 20 cents per share paid-out in 2015, it would be the first time that the bank rewarded its investors since the start of the financial crisis.
Similarly, Commerzbank's departing board chairman Klaus-Peter Mueller expressed confidence on Tuesday that the institute was on "the right path" to recovery. Mueller highlighted that the bank had increased its equity capital ratio, lowered risks and cleaned up the balance sheet in general.
"These are all good conditions to achieve a sustainable improvement in profitability," Mueller argued.
