(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG is seeing quite “healthy” growth in the investment bank this quarter, with trading and origination and advisory both up from a year earlier, Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke said.
Fixed-income trading is growing in the mid-single digits, von Moltke said Wednesday at a conference organized by Bank of America Corp. The business of advising on deals and stock and bond issuance should grow around 15%, he said.
Shares of Deutsche Bank reversed losses on the comments, rising as much as 1.9% in Frankfurt.
The German lender is focused on improving profitability and returning more than €8 billion ($9 billion) to shareholders over the medium term. Von Moltke on Wednesday effectively ruled out getting involved in the battle for cross-town rival Commerzbank AG, saying Deutsche Bank still has work to do to deliver on the promises it made to its investors.
The company in July spooked investors as it put aside more money for souring loans to companies and the commercial real estate sector. It also shelved plans for a second buyback this year as a litigation charge tied to its takeover of Postbank years ago pushed it to a quarterly loss.
The stock has since recovered after Deutsche Bank settled a majority of the Postbank cases, giving a boost to third-quarter results. It has said it would also review its shareholder payout plans.
The CFO said in July that the third quarter was off to a good start in trading, and that “more directionality of the rate environment and maybe a little more volatility” should support the rates and currency business.
Lower rates are now also starting to support the commercial real estate market, including in the US, von Moltke said Wednesday.
“The rate cycle is beginning to relieve some of the pressure on commercial real estate,” he said. “So we see that normalization that we were expecting to happen again.”
(Updates with comments on commercial real estate in last paragraph.)
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