Germany's biggest bank, Deutsche Bank, posted its first quarterly loss in five years today as it wrote down €2.7 billion in the value of assets as a result of the global financial crisis.
Net profit after minority holdings fell to a loss of €131m from a profit of €2.121 billion the same time last year, the bank said in a statement. Pretax earnings fell to a loss of €254m from a profit of €3.163 billion, it added.
The bank's results were weighed down by €1.770 billion in mark-downs on leveraged loans and loan commitments and €885m in mark-downs on commercial real estate loans and residential mortgage-backed securities.
Overall, the charges came to €2.7 billion, slightly higher than previously forecast. Deutsche had announced on April 1 that it anticipated first-quarter mark-downs of about €2.5 billion.
Chairman Josef Ackermann said that 'in the first quarter of this year, financial market conditions were the most difficult in recent memory'.
'In the month of March, pressure on the banking sector was more intense than at any time since the current credit downturn began. Inevitably, this left its mark on Deutsche Bank's results,' he added.
The international banking sector has been in turmoil since the US market for high risk, or sub-prime, mortgages collapsed in mid 2007.
