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Christian Sewing's triumph is clearly noticeable.

Even if there is a problem at the beginning of the virtual show, the Deutsche Bank boss remains calm.

For once, he can allow himself to make small mistakes.

Because just a few months ago hardly anyone would have believed that what he has to announce today.

The institute made a profit for the first time in six years - despite and also because of the biggest economic slump in German post-war history.

Because investment banking - of all things - the group's unloved child for many years - benefited from the turbulent year.

The bottom line - after deducting interest payments for subordinated bonds - Sewing made a profit of 113 million euros.

In 2019, the largest German financial institution had accumulated a loss of 5.7 billion euros due to the costs of the group restructuring.

The total income increased by four percent to a good 24 billion euros.

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Sewing owes this good result primarily to investment banking.

It was the only division in which the bank was able to increase its earnings significantly - by 32 percent.

Business with bonds and currencies as well as advice on bond issues and IPOs are benefiting from the crisis.

The turbulence on the markets increased companies' need for financing and security.

However, it is questionable how long-term the success of investment banking will be.

What happens if the situation on the markets normalizes - will earnings then collapse again?

Sewing warned months ago that the positive trend in investment banking could weaken.

In fact, investment banking went particularly well in the past quarter.

Nobody wants to talk about “gambling” anymore

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This raises doubts about the new direction of Deutsche Bank.

Sewing actually wanted to achieve more balance between the individual divisions and stabilize earnings through the group restructuring that was initiated in summer 2019.

Now the institute could become dependent again on volatile investment banking.

The bank emphasized that it had significantly reduced costs in the division and had permanently gained market share.

The institute is expecting high returns this year as well.

Sewing, that was also noticeable, the emerging dominance of investment banking is nevertheless almost unpleasant.

He emphasized that the institute does not operate wet paper trading as an end in itself - only for the benefit of the customer.

In doing so, he apparently wanted to pre-empt any suspicion that the institute had increased its income primarily through "gambling".

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He also warned against reducing the performance of the private and corporate bank.

He praised the “strong performance” of the employees in this division and congratulated them for it.

He did not mention the investment bankers.

At first he did not want to comment on their remuneration.

The fact is: Revenues in private and corporate banking fell in contrast to investment banking.

The corona crisis had a negative impact in this area.

This was due to the persistently low interest rates and the significantly increased risk provisioning for bad loans.

It increased to 1.8 billion euros.

Sewing was able to reduce costs by 15 percent.

Sewing gave a confident outlook.

With last year's result, the company's own expectations were exceeded, he said.

"We are sustainably profitable and confident that the overall positive trend in 2021 will continue even in these difficult times."

The further transformation is a feat of strength.

But he wants to take this step.

"We are happy with our progress, but we know we still have a lot to do."

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"Everything on shares" is the daily stock market shot from the WELT business editorial team.

Every morning from 7 a.m. with the financial journalists Moritz Seyffarth and Holger Zschäpitz.

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