Deutsche Bank Q2 profit nears 2007 record as investment bank jumps 60%

Q2 profit beats forecasts

Deutsche Bank reported a pre-tax profit of €2.68 billion for the second quarter of 2026, comfortably ahead of the €2.3 billion analysts had expected. Net profit attributable to shareholders reached €1.64 billion, a 10 percent increase from the €1.5 billion recorded a year earlier, which had been the highest quarterly result since 2007. The strong second quarter followed a profit jump in the first three months of the year, bringing first-half net profit to around €3.6 billion, the strongest six-month showing in nearly two decades.

Investment bank leads the charge

The investment banking division was the main engine, with pre-tax profit rising almost 60 percent year-on-year to €1.3 billion. Corporate finance advisory, IPO mandates, and securities issuance all contributed to the jump. The division's performance helped lift group revenues to €17.2 billion in the first half, keeping the bank on track for its full-year target of around €33 billion.

Sewing raises the bar

CEO Christian Sewing used the results to signal confidence, announcing an additional €500 million in share buybacks for the second half of the year. He reaffirmed the goal of pushing return on equity above 13 percent by 2028, up from 11 percent in the second quarter. Sewing also highlighted artificial intelligence as a tool to improve efficiency, aiming to bring the cost/income ratio below 60 percent by 2028; in the first half it stood at almost 61 percent. At the annual general meeting in May, he had described the ambition to turn Deutsche Bank into the "European champion in banking".

Together with our record results so far this year, these developments strengthen our confidence that we can exceed our 2028 targets.

AI opens up new opportunities to create added value for our customers and achieve additional savings.

Legal shadows linger

The earnings momentum was clouded by ongoing legal scrutiny. In July 2026, prosecutors and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) searched the bank's Frankfurt headquarters for evidence related to questionable stock transactions from the Postbank era, for which Deutsche Bank is the legal successor. An earlier search had taken place in January 2026.

Historical perspective

The second-quarter pre-tax result was only marginally below the same period in 2007, the bank's record year before the financial crisis. First-half net profit of €3.6 billion compared with €3.9 billion in the first six months of 2007. For the full year 2025, Deutsche Bank posted a pre-tax profit of €9.7 billion, the highest in its history, and a net profit of €6.1 billion, second only to the €6.5 billion recorded in 2007. The bank expects full-year 2026 revenues of around €33 billion, with €17.2 billion already booked in the first half.