Deutsche Bank calls for “patience” after another year of losses – swissinfo.ch

The German bank Deutsche Bank announced on Thursday further losses in 2016, a result of the fines, the drop in incomes and the restructuring, but asked for “patience” and said that it is preparing the future.

“The year 2016 has not been a bad year (…) We have made significant progress,” he said, despite everything, the president of the group, britain’s John Cryan in a press conference in Frankfurt.

“2016 was a year of small steps. But these small steps were very numerous, although most do not appear in the results,” added Cryan, the author since his arrival at the bank in mid-2015 of a large project of restructuring.

In 2016, the bank recorded net losses of 1,400 million euros, a result a little less catastrophic than the 2015 (7,000 million of losses) but worse than that auguraban analysts.

After the announcement, shares of Deutsche Bank fell more than 5% to half a day on the Frankfurt Stock exchange.

As in 2015, the group had to pay in 2016, several fines that have burdened its results. In addition, like its competitors, saw by the low interest rates and the tightening of banking regulation.

In parallel, Deutsche Bank is moving forward with a vast restructuring plan which provides for the elimination of 9,000 jobs through 2020 as well as the abandonment of some activities considered high-risk or unprofitable.

“of Course we are not satisfied with the results” of 2016, said chief financial officer Marcus Schenck, but stated that “we have to plant today if we want to have a good harvest, and that calls for patience.”

In terms of the restructuring, Deutsche Bank will be broke in 2016 as planned of its risk assets (which in 2012 still accounted for 128.000 eur million), closed several subsidiaries in Germany and strengthened its financial base to quell the concerns of investors and analysts.

in Addition put an end to one of the disputes which are more threatening to the bank, agreeing to pay up to 7,000 million dollars in the united States in a case related to the crisis of ‘subprime’.

Also paid 600 million fine in the context of an investigation of the american authorities and the british on the laundering of money from Russia.

These cases “not only cost us money but has also damaged our reputation,” said Cryan. In this sense, the entity announced in mid-January the cropping of the premiums on a part of its management and senior positions.

despite the difficulties, according to the chairman of the group John Cryan “the majority of clients maintain their trust in Deutsche Bank” and predicts that it will be profitable in 2017, thanks to increased income and to the economic context was more favourable.

To prevent new scandals the bank just to hire 350 new employees in the sector of the control and the fight against crime and plans to hire another 500 this year.

however, Deutsche Bank remains implicated in at least 8,000 legal cases in all over the world.