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Deutsche Bank Says 2017 Loss Bigger than First Announced

Germany's top lender Deutsche Bank on Friday said it made a net loss of 751 million euros in 2017, far greater than the loss announced in preliminary figures last month.

The Frankfurt-based lender had initially said the net loss for 2017 amounted to 512 million euros ($630 million), but the figure was revised upwards in its final annual report based on audited results.

It marks the lender's third straight year in the red after it lost 1.4 billion euros in 2016 and nearly seven billion in 2015.

The bank, which is in the throes of a tough restructuring and mired in costly legal woes, last month blamed 2017's poor performance on corporate tax reforms in the United States.

Had it not been for President Donald Trump's tax changes in the fourth quarter of 2017, the bank said it would have made a profit of around a billion euros.

Deutsche's 2017 revenue figure was unchanged from February's preliminary report at 26.4 billion euros, down 12 percent on the year before.

At a pre-tax level, Deutsche was back in the black for the first time since 2014 as it notched up a profit of 1.2 billion euros, a slight downward revision from the 1.3 billion announced in February.

Although the US lowered corporate taxes late last year, the changes nevertheless represented a short-term hit for Deutsche Bank, as the tax breaks it received for its financial difficulties shrank along with the tax rate.

Deutsche Bank has however said it will benefit in the longer term, as its average tax rate around the world will fall to 30 percent from 2018.

The lender has blamed last year's drop in revenues on "challenging market conditions" as well as on a string of sell-offs, including its stake in Chinese bank Hua Xia and British insurance company Abbey Life.

It also said low financial market volatility and muted client activity sapped revenue at its corporate and investment banking division.

Source: Agence France Presse


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