Stefan Krause
Analyst · Citi. Please go ahead
So thank you very much Anshu and good morning and thanks for joining us. Let's start with the highlights of the quarter. Our Group income before income taxes was EUR253 million. The core bank IBIT was EUR943 million. The estimated, fully-loaded Core Tier 1 ratio was 11.7%, as you can see on the chart. Our leverage ratio was 3.5% on a fully loaded basis. Tangible book value per share was 3.1% higher than the third quarter of 2014. As in the third quarter, the revenues of our business grew in the fourth quarter year on year. At the same time, Deutsche Bank continues to take further risk off the balance sheet and hence reduce leverage. The quality of the Bank's revenues, as well as of the Bank's balance sheet, have further improved in the fourth quarter. And just one information that's not on this chart on page 2, the Management Board will propose to the Supervisory Board an unchanged dividend of EUR0.75, based on these results that I just explained to you. So let me address some key current themes, this quarter its capital costs as well as litigation, before I then dive deeper into Group and segment results. As you can see on page four, the Core Tier 1 capital ratio at year-end 2014 was 11.7%, up 20 basis points from the prior quarter, reflecting our EUR7.5 billion reduction in RWA. Core Tier 1 capital increased only marginally, with net income largely offset by dividend accruals and other movements including FX. On RWA we reduced our credit and market risk RWA measurably, offsetting increases for operational risk and FX, as well as the EUR13 billion methodology-related RWA increase, including EUR7 billion in the area of credit valuation adjustment RWA, as well as the EUR4 billion add-on taken in light of ongoing supervisory discussion, on incremental risk charge calculation requirements. Market risk reduction mainly came from reduced securitizations exposure and lower credit concentrations. Credit risk RWA reductions come from CB&S and NCOU, reflecting risk reductions, asset sales and process improvements. Overall the quarter demonstrated our continued, strong RWA discipline, as we were able to fully absorb the EUR13 billion methodology-related increase and still lower our total RWA. Let me caution though that decreases also benefited from seasonality and we expect to see RWA increases, notably in CB&S, in the first quarter. Let me turn to page 5 where you see our leverage ratio. In the fourth quarter the CRD4, fully loaded leverage ratio improved to 3.5%, reflecting both the issuance of our $1.5 billion of AT1 and the reduction of CR before exposure by EUR81 billion. Adjusting for the impact of FX and the various measurement changes regulators introduced, we have now achieved the EUR250 billion de-leveraging goal for year-end 2015, a full year ahead of time. NCOU de-leveraging contributed EUR13 billion in the quarter, including the Cosmo sale that Anshu just mentioned, the active rundown of our commodities business and the roll-off of the legacy correlation trading portfolio. Exposure reductions in derivatives and securities financing activities are down EUR55 billion versus the third quarter. In the derivatives portfolio we saw further reductions from trade compression [indiscernible] innovations. Within our securities financing portfolio we have reduced outstanding volumes. The EUR16 billion reduction in cash, collateral and other, reflects our ongoing initiatives to reduce concentrated and short-term wholesales liabilities which do not provide meaningful liquidity. On page 6 you see that with 20 basis points improvement in our Core Tier 1 capital ratio and 30 basis points in our CRD4 leverage ratio, we had a strong quarter from a capital management perspective. We had to digest, as I already mentioned, further methodology changes leading to an increase in our RWA of EUR13 billion, mainly for credit valuation adjustment RWA and incremental risk charge. Strict RWA discipline allowed us to offset these increases and, in fact, reduce net RWA quarter on quarter. Events in the quarter also included the issuance of $1.5 billion of additional Tier 1, which completed our EUR5 billion AT1 issuance target, originally set for the end of 2015. Still, as you know, headwinds remain. Most notably, an expected EUR1.5 billion to EUR2 billion prudent valuation capital charge which is now with the European Commission for final consideration. And other headwinds that I can mention here, obviously the industry-wide litigation settlements continued and therefore obviously continued regulatory focus on operational risk, and potential adjustments resulting from the ECB's now horizontal review of European regulatory practice. Additionally, in the medium to long term, we still have to assess the potential impact from various Basel committee reviews of RWA calculations, like the fundamental review of the trading book, or the latest consultation on RWA and capital floor. Let me turn now to the next topic on page 7, which is cost. You see that total non-interest expenses of EUR7.2 billion were EUR394 million lower than in the prior year, largely due to EUR900 million lower litigation expenses in 2014. For the full year, total non-interest expenses were EUR27.7 billion, EUR693 million lower than in 2013, benefiting from EUR1.5 billion lower litigation costs, as I already mentioned. On page 8 we give you a little bit more explanation on our cost development. As you can see on the slide, the adjusted cost base in the fourth quarter 2014 of EUR6 billion was 7% higher year on year, as FX and regulatory headwinds offset our OpEx achievements. The OpEx program itself, the incremental savings amounted to EUR0.4 billion in the quarter. Accumulated OpEx savings/to date, accumulate to EUR3.3 billion, above the EUR2.9 billion target for 2014. Cumulative CtA spend for OpEx is now at EUR3 billion. We expect the majority of the spend originally targeted for 2014 will now be spent in 2015. Costs to comply with regulatory, audit and control requirements were EUR300 million in the quarter. Of this, approximately EUR100 was attributable to CRD4 compensation, bringing the full-year impact of our CRD4 to EUR300 million. Investments in IT and increased staffing for regulatory and control functions contributed EUR300 million to the regulatory-induced cost increases. Finally we see the other cost increase from selective growth investment in our different operating businesses. Let me now, on page 9, explain our full-year cost development in more detail. Our adjusted costs increased 2.7% in 2014, to EUR23.8 billion. OpEx delivered EUR1.3 billion of savings which were offset by EUR1.9 billion of cost increases. Of the EUR1.9 billion increase, EUR1.3 billion was regulatory related and included approximately EUR500 million, we expect as temporary one-off including charges for our CRD4 compensation rules. Approximately EUR400 million were related to regulatory projects which have not yet been completed. And approximately EUR400 million are driven by incremental headcount to comply with additional regulatory requirements, as well as increased ongoing charges such as bank levies. FX movements, as you can see on the chart, increased costs by approximately EUR200 million. And we spent approximately EUR400 million on investing into our businesses. This mainly reflects strategic hires in selected areas as well as statutory mandated salary increases, non-regulatory IT spend and others. On page 10 I go to the next topic which is the litigation. As you can see, our litigations provisions of EUR3.2 billion increased slightly in the quarter. The resolution of a number of matters has been slower in 2014 than we had expected. Those matters are still pending and we anticipate that litigation charges will remain elevated in 2015. And obviously I learnt my lesson to forecasting litigation expenses this year and obviously will abstain from do so, in case you have a question later on. So let me turn now to the Group results on page 12. Here you can see that Group revenues of EUR7.8 billion were up 19% versus the same period last year. All four businesses have grown year on year. This has been achieved with lower leverage exposure. In addition I would note the seasonality declines this year; you remember we have made you aware that that's our belief and it really turned out this way when you look at the revenue development over our quarters. And obviously I will discuss the revenues in more detail when I cover every one of the business and division sections. Let's turn to the other good story that continues to be a good story with our provisions for credit losses. Provision for credit losses in the fourth quarter as well as the full year were materially below last year in all businesses. The reduction in NCOU reflects the well-reserved and significantly de-risked book. The core bank benefited from increased releases and recoveries as well from a lack of large, single-name credit events. The increase compared to the third quarter was due to the European real estate exposures, mainly with NCOU. For 2015 we expect the provision for credit losses to moderately increase as a result of business growth and the very benign environment in 2014. The loan-loss provision ratio is expected, though, to remain stable. Page 4 I cover profitability. As I have already told you the IBIT was EUR253 million in the fourth quarter and EUR3.1 billion for the full year. In the fourth quarter net income was EUR441 million. Full year 2014 net income was EUR1.7 billion. The effective tax rate in the fourth quarter benefited from the positive revaluation of deferred tax assets, resulting from favorable changes in tax regimes which the Bank is subject to outside of Germany. In the short term our effective tax rate may continue to be volatile. We estimate that the effective tax rate in 2015, on an adjusted basis, will be though around 35%. Page 15, the adjusted earnings of the core bank was EUR1.4 billion, close to last year's level. As you can see, the full year 2014 produced EUR8.4 billion pre-tax adjusted IBIT for the core bank, reflecting the underlying earnings power of our business. We now move to the segment results. Let's move on to page 17; start with CB&S. CB&S strong performance in 2014, continued in the fourth quarter, with revenues increasing 20% year on year. I think a quite impressive development. CB&S delivered very strong revenue momentum, despite reducing its resources, significantly increasing the efficiency of our platform. Full year 2014 cost increased by 2%. While we made progress on OpEx savings, costs were negatively affected by regulatory-required spend, platform enhancement and, of course, the CRD4 pay-mix adjustment. Full year CB&S post tax RoE, excluding litigations and costs to achieve, was 12%. Page 18, in the fourth quarter debt sales and trading revenues were up 13% year on year. The fourth quarter completed a year of strong revenue momentum. Our debt sales and trading franchise was flat year-on-year revenues versus an overall industry decline in the full year of 2014. Debt sales and trading ranked number one globally by market share by Greenwich Associates for the fifth year in a row, demonstrating the ongoing strength of our client franchise. The fourth quarter FX revenues were higher year on year, supported by increased volatility. RMBS and credit solution revenues were also higher year on year. This was just offset by lower revenues in rates and flow credit. Let me turn to equity. Equity sales and trading revenues was significantly higher year on year, driven by equity derivatives and prime finance. Cash equity revenues were stable year on year. Full year 2014 equity sales and trading revenues were up 7% year on year, versus flat to slightly down revenues for the industry. Page 9 you can see that corporate finance revenues were up 6% year on year, as higher debt origination and advisory revenues were partially offset by lower equity origination revenues. In full year 2014 we ranked number five in global corporate finance, with record market share driven by higher market share in the US and EMEA. We achieved the highest market share gain of any of our main competitors versus full year 2013. There has been continued momentum in the US and EMEA, with year-on-year market share gains in the US across all products and record share in EMEA. On page 20 we talk about PBC. In our fourth quarter PBC reported an IBIT of EUR55 million. This result was driven by EUR330 million charge for the reimbursement of loan-processing fees; Anshu alluded to it already. Appropriate provisions for loan-processing fees were created in 2014. We believe, on this basis, we do not expect any further impact in 2015 and beyond. Adjusted for CtA and loan-processing charges, PBC reported an IBIT of EUR597 million, reflecting strong revenues in investment products and insurances. Credit loss provisions increased slightly compared to the prior quarter, due to the recalibrations in some of the portfolios. We expect 2015 provisions to remain largely at 2014 level. On a full-year basis, PBC's IBIT is up 7% to EUR2.2 billion, adjusted for CtA and loan-processing charges. Now let me turn to page 21. And there you can see that adjusted for the loan-processing fee charges, IBIT in PBC and Postbank were up as well. And when you look at the advisory banking section, the advisory banking international has benefited from the ongoing financial contribution of our stake in Hua Xia Bank and the impact of a sale and leaseback agreement. On page 22 you see that GTB achieved an IBIT of EUR265 million in the fourth quarter and EUR1.2 billion in 2014. Revenues grew 7% in the quarter and 2% for the full year, due to strong volumes and business momentum, especially in Asia and the Americas. Non-interest expenses declined year on year, driven by lower CtA and impairments. Full year non-interest expenses of EUR2.8 billion were 5% higher due to increased revenue-related expenses, regulatory-required spend as well as litigation charges. On page 23 you see that the fourth quarter AWM IBIT was EUR365 million, benefiting from partial reversal of a previous intangible write-down for Scudder of EUR83 million. Full year IBIT increased 31% to EUR1 billion. Quarterly revenue ex Abbey Life gross-up, increased by 8% to EUR1.2 billion, mainly from strong alternative business and solid performance in our wealth management businesses in all regions, with an improvement in recurring revenues as well. Net new money inflows were EUR10 billion in the quarter. For the full year, net new asset inflows were EUR40 billion. The increase was broadly based across our passive, wealth management, active institutional and alternative businesses as well as clients and regions. Invested assets, as Anshu mentioned, surpassed the EUR1 trillion at year end. On page 24 we show you the results of our non-core unit. The NCOU continued to de-risk and reduced assets by EUR6 billion in the quarter. However the reduction of RWA has been partially offset by model-driven factors, including an increase in operational risk during the quarter. In the fourth quarter, the sale of the Cosmopolitan reduced both assets and RWA by EUR1.5 billion and added approximately 5 basis points to our Core Tier 1 ratio. The fourth quarter IBIT includes an asset impairment of almost EUR200 million relating to Maher terminals which has been reported within the non-interest expense line. As you know, there is further transparency on page 34 of the appendix relating to the NCOU IBIT performance, which I have shared with you in the previous quarters. Then last but not least let me go to our C&A. C&A loss before income taxes was EUR258 million in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared to a loss of EUR1.1 billion in the prior year quarter. The decrease in losses compared to the fourth quarter 2014 was predominantly attributable to the non-recurrence of litigation charges and funding valuation adjustment losses. We expect a significant increase in bank levies from BRRD as of 2015. There are still some uncertainties around the final amount. Our estimate for the 2015 contribution is some EUR100 million higher than 2014. We will also have to account for the full 2015 amount in the first quarter of 2015. These amounts will be fully allocated to the business divisions, accrued evenly over the fourth quarter, in line with the calculation model for the contribution of the Group, and the difference will be tracked in C&A in the future. With that, I'm done and Anshu and I would be delighted to take your questions.