Deutsche Bank’s Q3 2017 revenues were €6.78 billion, below market expectations of €6.88 billion. The share price fell 2.7% shortly after the European market open. The problem – like the previous quarter – was a bigger-than-expected drop in trading revenues. Trading revenue was down 30% year-on-year to €1.512 billion versus €2.162 billion in Q2 2017.
The challenge for the embattled CEO, John Cryan, is that the trend is still deteriorating. Trading revenues in Q2 2017 fell 18% year-on-year to 1.666 billion euros versus 2.027 billion euros. Earlier this year, Cryan pledged to turnaround the performance of the investment bank as soon as this year. On a more positive note, earnings – which obviously possess a near-term degree of flexibility in the banking sector – beat expectations. This mirrored Q2 2017, as Cryan continued to apply a knife to the cost base (although end Q3 headcount rose “slightly” versus end Q2 – probably compliance).
The countdown to Cryan’s replacement is ticking every louder: “These aren’t the kind of numbers you want to keep seeing,” said Markus Riesselmann, an analyst at Independent Research in Frankfurt (who has a buy reco on the bank). “The longer this goes on, the harder it gets to believe management’s hopes for a recovery. We cannot see another two or three quarters like this.”
As Bloomberg reported, Deutsche Bank AG reported a bigger-than-expected drop in third-quarter trading revenue as Europe’s largest investment bank keeps losing ground to rivals. Trading declined 30 percent from a year earlier, Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank said Thursday in a statement. That’s worse than the 15 percent average decline at the five biggest U.S. investment banks and the 24 percent drop expected by analysts. Net income more than doubled to 647 million euros ($766 million), beating the 278.6 million-euro average estimate of seven analysts, as the bank cut costs.
