FRANKFURT, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest lender, on Thursday posted a full-year net profit of 113 million euros (135 million U.S. dollars) in 2020, the first annual net profit since 2014.
It was a dramatic turnabout from a net loss of 5.718 billion euros for 2019, when the bank unveiled its massive restructuring plan to improve profitability.
Christian Sewing, chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank, said the results are "ahead of our own expectations". The bank was able to more than offset transformation-related effects and elevated credit provisions despite the global pandemic, Sewing said in a statement.
The bank managed to be profitable in all four quarters, according to its preliminary annual results. In the final quarter, it reaped a net profit of 51 million euros.
Its investment bank division posted a stellar performance, with net revenues surging 32 percent to 9.3 billion euros in 2020. The increase was driven by "significantly higher revenues and reductions in adjusted costs, which more than offset a rise in provision for credit losses resulting from COVID-19," the bank said.
Net revenues for the corporate and private bank divisions were almost flat from a year ago while asset management net revenues dropped 4 percent.
The bank said it remained on track for all strategic and financial objectives. Among them, sustainable financing and investment volumes were over 40 billion euros in 2020, well ahead of its target threshold of 20 billion euros. (1 euro = 1.2 U.S. dollars) Enditem
