Deutsche Bank profit surges amid new probe

Record 2025 earnings at Germany’s largest lender

Deutsche Bank reported its strongest annual results in nearly two decades for 2025, with pre‑tax profit reaching €9.7bn, an 84% increase on 2024. Net profit attributable to shareholders more than doubled to €6.1bn, compared with 2024, when earnings were weighed down by legal costs related to a troubled takeover. Revenues rose 7% year on year to €32.1bn, supported in part by higher long‑term interest rates.

Earnings improved across all of Deutsche Bank’s main business divisions, including investment banking, corporate banking and asset management. The bank said it had met all of its 2025 financial targets, prompting chief executive Christian Sewing to describe the performance as providing “the strongest possible foundation for the next phase of our strategy”. He reiterated the goal of positioning Deutsche Bank as a “European champion” in banking.

Despite the profit jump, Deutsche Bank’s shares fell about 2% in Frankfurt trading after the results release. The decline came as investors weighed the strong earnings against legal developments in Germany, where authorities have opened a new money‑laundering investigation related to past transactions.

Money‑laundering probe and office raids in Germany

The bank’s results were overshadowed by a money‑laundering investigation that led prosecutors and police to raid Deutsche Bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt and its Berlin office the day before the earnings announcement. The raids form part of an inquiry into whether a report on suspected money laundering was filed late for transactions that took place between 2013 and 2018.

German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that the probe involves the bank’s dealings with companies linked to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who has been sanctioned by the European Union. Prosecutors have not confirmed who is being targeted. Abramovich, the former owner of English football club Chelsea, was sanctioned following Russia’s full‑scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Deutsche Bank said it is co‑operating with the authorities.

Sewing declined to answer detailed questions about the bank’s past business with Abramovich at the results presentation. He said the allegations centre on a potentially late suspicious activity report rather than on the underlying transactions themselves. He acknowledged that the investigation is a setback for a bank that has tried in recent years to move past a series of misconduct and compliance scandals.

Strategic outlook amid legal scrutiny

Sewing emphasised that Deutsche Bank’s operational momentum remains strong despite the legal headwinds. He said the bank’s divisions all contributed to earnings growth in 2025, and that the group is entering the next phase of its strategy from a position of improved profitability and capital strength. The CEO reiterated the ambition to consolidate Deutsche Bank’s role as a leading European institution in global capital markets and corporate banking.

At the same time, the money‑laundering probe revives questions over the bank’s controls, following what Sewing described as “a run of scandals” in the preceding decade. He noted that management had hoped investor and media attention would focus exclusively on the improved financial results, but accepted that the investigation has complicated that narrative. How the case develops will be closely watched given Deutsche Bank’s efforts to strengthen compliance and rebuild its reputation.