Deutsche Bank reported a net profit of 1,9 billion euro, around 8 percent higher than a year earlier, the bank said on Wednesday. Analysts had on average expected a net profit of 1,77 billion euro.

Despite the Iran war and weaker growth prospects, the bank’s management is sticking to its outlook and expects revenues of around 33 billion euro for the full year. «We can deal with uncertainty,» Chief Financial Officer Raja Akram said during a conference call. In some cases, clients are even seeking more advice from the bank amid the uncertain environment.

Slightly Higher Revenues

For this reason, the bank now expects «higher» revenues in its investment banking division for the full year, having previously guided for only «slightly higher» revenues. Despite the economic impact of the Iran war, Deutsche Bank anticipates fewer loan losses.

The development in the first quarter marks «a very good start to the next phase of our strategy,» said Chief Executive Christian Sewing. The result underlines the ambition «to become the European champion in banking.» Management aims to increase return on equity to more than 13 percent by 2028.

In the first quarter – traditionally a strong period for banks – the figure stood at 12,7 percent of the bank’s core capital.

Private Client Business Helps

In the first three months of the year, the strong performance was driven in particular by private banking and asset management. Pre-tax profit in the private client division rose by 39 percent year-on-year to 681 million euro. Asset management recorded a similar increase, with fund subsidiary DWS generating just under 280 million euro in pre-tax profit.

In the corporate banking division, revenues and profits stagnated compared to the previous year, while profits in the investment bank declined. Overall, the cost-income ratio improved from 61,2 percent to 58,9 percent.

Record in the Previous Year

At just over 3 billion euro, pre-tax profit was exceeded only by the first quarter of 2007, when it reached around 3,2 billion euro. Last year, Deutsche Bank achieved the highest pre-tax profit in its history at just over 9,7 billion euro. Of this, 6,1 billion euro remained as net profit. Earnings were higher only in the record year 2007, when net profit amounted to around 6,5 billion euro.