Market report: Deutsche Bank wants to become a “European champion”.

Market report After record profits Deutsche Bank wants to become “European champion” As of: October 28, 2026 • 3:05 p.m

Banks are earning well again - after the competition, Deutsche Bank can now also present good quarterly figures. In a competitive market, the group now wants to catch up with the largest institutions in Europe.

Deutsche Bank continued its record run in the third quarter between July and September. Pre-tax profit rose by eight percent to a good 2.6 billion euros in the summer quarter compared to the same period last year. After taxes, there was a profit of around 1.9 billion euros, two percent more than a year earlier, as Germany's largest financial institution announced in Frankfurt. Shareholders accounted for almost 1.6 billion euros of this, only slightly less than in the previous record year of 2007.

The income, i.e. the total income, reached around 8.3 billion euros. For the year as a whole, the Frankfurters could now even exceed the targeted earnings level of 33 billion euros, they said.

The fund subsidiary DWS, however, disappointed expectations. It collected more money from investors in the summer than ever before in a quarter. However, earnings and profits rose significantly less than analysts had expected on average.

The bottom line is that DWS funds received 30.9 billion euros in fresh money from July to September. DWS was able to increase its surplus in the third quarter by five percent to 230 million euros compared to the same period last year.

Bank boss Christian Sewing is confident about the outlook. He promised a return on equity of 13 percent for the year as a whole - the return on capital employed is considered the key success factor for banks. Sewing wants to announce new goals at the beginning of 2027, together with the annual results.

The Deutsche Bank boss reiterated: "We want to become the European champion. And we see great opportunities to come significantly closer to this goal." In the ranking of the largest European institutions by market capitalization, Deutsche Bank is now well behind major competitors such as HSBC, Santander; UBS or BNP Paribas.

Economy update from October 28th, 2026 Samir Ibrahim, HR, Economy update, Tagesschau24, October 28th, 2026 • 9:00 a.m. Investment banking remains the biggest profit generator The biggest profit generator at Deutsche Bank was once again investment banking. Already in the spring of the current year, bubbling profits in the business with securities and currencies as well as in the support of IPOs had brought the institute a record profit of billions.

The large US banks with which Deutsche Bank competes also increased their profits significantly in the third quarter. Goldman Sachs and Citigroup had achieved a larger plus than expected, while industry leader JPMorgan had missed market expectations despite an increase in profits - the reason for this was weaker investment banking. The major Swiss bank UBS increased its pre-tax profit in the third quarter thanks to increasing income and falling costs.

Meanwhile, it looks as if Deutsche Bank will soon be the only major listed German banking group on its planned path to becoming a European champion. The bank supervisors at the European Central Bank (ECB) recently allowed the major Italian bank Unicredit to increase its 30 percent stake in Commerzbank - it now has around 50 percent of the voting rights.

According to German law, there is no longer any upper limit, but this is being discussed increasingly critically - because there is no provision for a takeover bonus for the existing shareholders, even in the event of a "hostile takeover" as in the case of Commerzbank. This was a main point of criticism from the current Commerzbank board, which initially insisted on the institution's independence. The federal government will also not be able to prevent the takeover, even if Finance Minister Klingbeil recently set conditions for the takeover. The federal government remains Commerzbank's second-largest shareholder with 12.1 percent.

The following also applies: Large parts of the German banking system are largely supported by the savings banks and Volksbank and Raiffeisen sectors, especially business with private customers. It therefore remains outside the stock exchanges. The state continues to have a decisive influence on the banks through regional authorities and even the states.

After the approval of the ECB supervisors, almost nothing stands in the way of a majority takeover of Commerzbank by the major Italian bank UniCredit. more

After the recovery at the start of the week, the German stock market held its own in the middle of the week. The trading day is characterized by many company figures. In the evening, the focus will be on the US Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, which investors are keeping a low profile about. High oil prices are also dampening the mood to buy. It also remains unclear whether the USA will attack Iran again after the midterm elections on November 3rd.

“Investors are facing a stress test of monetary policy, geopolitics and quarterly figures,” stated market analyst Timo Emden from broker CapTrader. There are fears that the Fed could lose its balance in its balancing act between combating inflation and supporting growth, thereby further fueling the monetary policy headwind.

The leading German index closed yesterday 0.7 percent higher at 25,590 points. On Monday it had already gained 0.9 percent.

This topic in the program: tagesschau.de | Stock market 12:45 p.m.: interim status at midday | 10/28/26 | 1:51 p.m