FRANKFURT: Deutsche Bank on Friday posted its third consecutive annual loss in 2017, taking a hit from challenging markets, a drop in investment bank revenue and a US tax reform, after a difficult fourth quarter.

 

The worse-than-expected results are likely to increase pressure on Chief Executive John Cryan to turn Germany’s biggest bank around.

 

“We believe we are firmly on the path to producing growth and higher returns with sustained discipline on costs and risks,” Chief Executive John Cryan said in a statement. “We have made progress, but we are not yet satisfied with our results.” Investors have called on Cryan to cut costs, but the bank said it anticipated costs in 2018 of 23 billion euros, higher than a previously targeted 22 billion.

 

Last March Deutsche announced an overhaul that includes the integration of its Postbank retail bank unit with its own in-house Deutsche Bank-branded consumer bank, as well as the partial sale of its asset management unit.

 

On Friday it said the integration with Postbank was “on schedule” and that it would partially float its asset management unit “in the earliest available window”.

 

Still, the bank’s executives have warned that a recovery would be a long, hard slog that would take years, not quarters. James von Moltke,  Chief Financial Officer and Member of the Management Board was also present during the conference.

 

Continued weak performance at the bank has prompted some investors to question whether Cryan should be given more time to turn around the bank, after less than three years as CEO.

 

It reported a 2017 loss of 497 million euros ($621 million), worse than the loss of 290 million forecast by nine banks and brokerages polled by Reuters. US tax reforms prompted a non-cash tax charge of 1.4 billion euros, pushing the bank into a full-year loss.

 

In the fourth quarter, its net loss widened to 2.19 billion euros from 1.89 billion a year earlier and revenue slumped 19 per cent to 5.7 billion euros.

 

Reuters