Deutsche Bank increased its pre-tax profit in the third quarter of 2026 by 8 percent to 2.6 billion euros. Bottom line, Germany's largest lender earned around 1.9 billion euros, 2 percent more than in the same period last year, according to a statement on Wednesday. "We are pleased that we were able to achieve a record profit for the third quarter in a row," said CEO Christian Sewing.

In the first nine months, net profit after tax rose 7 percent to 5.9 billion euros. Pre-tax profit increased 8 percent to 8.4 billion euros. Revenue rose 4 percent in the third quarter to 8.3 billion euros. Costs remained broadly unchanged at 5.2 billion euros. As a result, the cost-income ratio improved from 64.4 percent to 62.4 percent.

Investment banking remains the biggest profit contributor

Once again, investment banking made the largest contribution to quarterly results. Its pre-tax profit rose 12 percent year over year to just under 1.1 billion euros. Demand remained especially strong in fixed income and currencies, as well as in corporate financing. Revenue from bond and foreign exchange trading reached 2.4 billion euros, slightly below the prior-year level.

The corporate bank also performed well. It posted record revenue and increased its loan volume by 10 billion euros compared with the prior year. Customer deposits rose by 41 billion euros.

However, the bank had to set aside more money for possible loan losses. Provisions for credit losses rose 9 percent from the previous quarter to 501 million euros. The reasons included risks in commercial real estate and a single credit exposure in the Asian corporate business.

Record inflows in wealth management

Deutsche Bank also reported strong growth in its business with wealthy private clients. Revenue in wealth management rose 10 percent compared with the prior-year quarter. Total client assets in the private bank increased by 75 billion euros since the start of the year to 865 billion euros. In the third quarter alone, net inflows totaled 17 billion euros, including 11 billion euros into investment products.

Since the start of the year, Deutsche Bank has also hired 180 new client advisers in wealth management. Together with asset management, net inflows in the first nine months reached 103 billion euros. The total assets under management in these two business segments thus exceeded the 2 trillion euro mark.

Higher revenue outlook 

After the strong first nine months, Deutsche Bank now expects to exceed its previous revenue target of around 33 billion euros for 2026. Return on tangible equity was 10.6 percent in the third quarter. For the first nine months, it reached 11.5 percent. By 2028, the bank is targeting a return of more than 13 percent. The Common Equity Tier 1 ratio stood at 14.0 percent at the end of September. So far this year, Deutsche Bank has also bought back shares worth a total of 1.5 billion euros.

In 2025 alone, the institution had already achieved its best result to date with pre-tax profit of just over 9.7 billion euros. After the first nine months of 2026, the bank is once again on record course.

DWS posts record client assets

The listed fund subsidiary DWS performed particularly strongly. It attracted net inflows of 30.9 billion euros in the third quarter, the highest ever in a single quarter. In the first nine months, inflows totaled 66.7 billion euros, already surpassing the previous full-year record since the IPO.

Assets under management also reached a record high of 1.221 trillion euros at the end of September. Compared with the end of 2025, this represents an increase of 136 billion euros.

Passive investment products made the biggest contribution. In this segment alone, net inflows came to 15.8 billion euros in the third quarter, especially into exchange-traded products under the Xtrackers brand. Another 13.9 billion euros came from money market products. By contrast, inflows and outflows in traditional active fund management were practically balanced. Equity funds lost 1 billion euros net, while systematic and quantitative investment strategies attracted 1.1 billion euros.

Profit disappoints

However, the strong growth in client assets has not yet translated into results to the expected extent. DWS increased revenue by 4 percent year over year to 784 million euros. Pre-tax profit rose 2 percent to 325 million euros, while net profit increased 5 percent to 230 million euros.

That left revenue and profit below the average analyst forecasts. The cost-income ratio worsened year over year from 57.7 percent to 58.6 percent. Still, DWS CEO Stefan Hoops remained confident: "In the third quarter, we delivered a solid result with strong inflows." For the full year, the asset manager is sticking to its target of increasing earnings per share by 10 to 15 percent. In the first nine months, the increase was already 16 percent.

New umbrella brand for the fund business

In parallel with the record inflows, DWS is undergoing a rebranding. Starting in November, the new international umbrella brand "Deutsche Asset Management" is to be introduced gradually. The existing product brands will remain in place. DWS will continue to be used mainly for the European active retail business, Xtrackers for ETFs and passive investments, and RREEF for the US real estate business.

The transition is scheduled to be completed by March 2027. The name of the listed parent company DWS Group will initially remain unchanged.