Merkel faces CARNAGE: Deutsche Bank CRISIS as revenues SINK with NO IDEA of recovery time

Germany’s biggest bank reported a disastrous £6.05billion (€6.8bn) drop in revenue in the three months to September compared to the year before.

The “terrible” 9.6 per cent drop year on year was blamed on a weak market, low interest rates and the bank’s ongoing restructuring programme.

The fall in revenue was a combination of factors stemming from the investments arm – with a 23 per cent fall in income for the corporate and investment bank division and a 36 per cent drop in bond and currency trading revenue.

James von Moltke, the bank’s chief finance officer, hinted a savings programme could be around the corner as he said the bank would need to “manage costs carefully” until investor activity increased.

And he said it was “very hard to answer” when revenue would recover.

He said: “We swim in a pool with our competitors and particularly the capital markets environment has been weak in the past couple of quarters, so we’re looking for that to pick up.”

Analysts told Express.co.uk “time is running out” to turn things around before investors start demanding new leadership.

The bank was forced to pay a £167m ($220m) fine yesterday after US regulators accused it of manipulating interest rates.

And revenues in Deutsche Bank’s bond trading division slumped 36 per cent in the third quarter due to reduced market volatility and decreased client activity.

The drop dwarfed competitors in the US, with investment banks’ bond trading revenues dipping an average of 22 per cent in America.

Piers Brown, of Macquarie Research in London, described Deutsche Bank’s performance as “poor”, and “significantly weaker than the peer group”.

European shares struck four-week lows today before they managed to steady.

Bank stocks were the main drag, with Deutsche Bank falling 1.86 per cent in reaction to the results, before recovering this afternoon.

Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index comments: “Deutsche Bank reported a 30% drop in third quarter trading revenue. There is no doubt that the trading environment is difficult, there is not a lot to trade and there is not much volatility out there and this is impacting on a lot of investment banking arms.

“However, the trading revenue figure from Deutsche Bank is terrible. The 30% drop in third quarter trading revenue is double that of the decline of its US peers. Furthermore, it is the third straight quarter of declines, no matter which way you look at it these are not the numbers you want to be seeing.

“Time is running out for CEO John Cryan, investors are going to start getting impatient with the apparent lack of progress in turning this ship around. We have already seen plenty of investors grow tired of waiting to see the fruits of Cryan’s March pledge to return to growth, which was the third in so many years.

“Shares in Deutsche Bank are down 1.3% today and 7.3% so far this year. One or two more disastrous quarters like this and large stakeholders in Deutsche Bank will most likely remove their support for Cryan.”

Deutsche Bank is merging its Postbank consumer subsidiary which it originally planned to sell, and integrating its investment banking arm as part of its restructuring programme in a bid to cut operating costs.

Chief executive John Cryan lauded results as profits doubled to £578, (€649m) in the last quarter.

He said: “While the revenue environment remained challenging, we have made significant progress on our key initiatives such as the planned merger of Deutsche Bank and Postbank in Germany as well as the preparation for the IPO of our asset management business.

“We are convinced that the benefits of our efforts will step by step become more apparent in the coming quarters and years.”