The Frankfurt-listed bank produced a slight drop in revenues in its private banking and wealth side last year.

Private Bank net revenues at Deutsche Bank eased 2 per cent in 2024 from a year ago, to €9.4 billion ($9.8 billion). In the fourth quarter, private bank net revenues were €2.4 billion, down 1 per cent on the prior year quarter. 

Growth in investment products, reflecting the private bank’s strategy of growing noninterest income, was more than offset in 2024 by a 6 per cent decline in net interest income, which reflected the impact of higher hedging and funding costs.

The Frankfurt-listed lender said personal banking revenues fell 5 per cent in 2024 year-on-year to €5.3 billion, as growth in deposit revenues was more than offset by the aforementioned rise in hedging and funding costs. 

Revenues in wealth management and private banking rose 2 per cent on a year earlier to €4.1 billion, as growth in both lending and investment products more than offset a fall in deposit revenues.

Assets under management rose to €633 billion, their highest ever level and €55 billion higher than at the end of 2023, driven partly by net inflows of €29 billion. 

At the group level, Deutsche Bank said pre-tax profit was €5.3 billion, down 7 per cent from 2023. Net profit was €3.5 billion, sliding 28 per cent, reflecting the non-recurrence in 2024 of €1.0 billion in a positive deferred tax asset (DTA) valuation adjustment in 2023.

The bank’s cost/income ratio stood at 76 per cent, compared with 75 per cent in 2023.

The bank said that so far in 2025 it had made €2.1 billion in capital distributions to shareholders. At the end of last year, it had a Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio –a bank’s capital buffer – of 13.8 per cent. 

“2024 was a vital year for Deutsche Bank,” Christian Sewing, CEO, said. “We delivered another year of revenue and business growth, maintained tight operating cost discipline, acted decisively to put significant legacy costs behind us and continued to invest in our platform. All of this – together with the strong start we have made this year – gives us firm confidence that we will deliver on our RoTE [return on tangible equity] target of above 10 per cent in 2025 and further increase distributions to shareholders.

“In addition, we are already working on measures to further increase returns in the coming years,” he concluded.