Deutsche Bank said Thursday it saw record profits during the fourth quarter of 2025, as the lender’s earnings update came amid a new investigation by German authorities into alleged money laundering.
The German lender’s fourth-quarter results statement showed net profit attributable to shareholders came in at 1.3 billion euros ($1.56 billion) in the last quarter of the year. That beat the 1.12 billion euros forecast by analysts.
Overall, Deutsche Bank’s group revenues came in at 7.73 billion euros for the three-month period ending December, which was in line with an estimate of 7.72 billion euros from LSEG.
Meanwhile, its CET 1 capital ratio — which offers a snapshot of bank solvency — was 14.2% for the fourth quarter, down slightly from 14.5% in the previous quarter, and up on 13.8% for the same period in 2024.
Shares in the bank were down 1.6%.
Deutsche Bank.
Elsewhere, credit impairment — a measure of how a loan portfolio is negatively impacted by credit losses — came in at 395 million euros, down on the 408.3 million euros predicted by analysts, and down from 417 million euros in the third quarter.
James Von Moltke, chief financial officer at Deutsche Bank, said the results pointed to “fantastic record years” for the bank’s fixed income and currencies business, as well as its asset management unit DWS, with growth also seen in its private banking business.
Fixed income and currencies revenues were a standout, rising 6% year-on-year to 2 billion euros — the strongest quarter on record.
On the flipside, 2025 proved a “slightly weaker year” for corporate activity, with investment banking and capital markets also slower.
Deutsche Bank also unveiled plans for a new share buyback scheme, sized at 1 billion euros, as part of a planned 2.9 billion capital distribution package to shareholders.
‘Well positioned’
Speaking with CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition,” Von Moltke said that all four of the bank’s businesses are “really well positioned, intrinsically and in this environment” to perform well in 2026. He said there is optimism for growing the IPO pipeline. He also admitted it’s “hard to speculate” over a potential market correction.
“There are good reasons to believe [markets] might be overstretched; there are good reasons to believe that the market can continue to perform,” he said. “There’s currently a risk on sentiment that’s pervasive in the marketplace… absent some sort of disruptive events, we actually think the markets are quite constructive.”
He expressed optimism that households in Germany will benefit from the country’s fiscal expansion, and said the firm’s corporate banking business is well-positioned to capitalize on this investment wave.
The fourth-quarter earnings statement comes a day after German federal prosecutors launched a probe into alleged money laundering at the lender, with law enforcement officials searching Deutsche Bank’s offices in Frankfurt and Berlin.
Von Moltke said the bank is cooperating with investigators on the matter. He declined to comment on specific client transactions, but acknowledged reports on Wednesday that pointed to transactions going back to 2013 and 2018.
“The idea is that through the potentially late, filed or delayed filing of suspicious activity reports, there may be a predicate here for money laundering. Let’s see what comes out of it,” he added.
“It’s from transactions that are well in the past. We’ve invested heavily over the years since in our financial crime risk management capabilities. We think those investments have been really good to position the company well and protect ourselves, as well as as the marketplace, from potential money laundering.”
