FRANKFURT, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank’s <DBKGn.DE> quarterly earnings rebounded from last year’s record losses, helped by a one-off tax gain, as tighter regulations cloud the outlook for itself and European rivals.

Germany’s biggest lender on Thursday reported a 1.3 billion euro ($1.8 billion) net profit in the fourth quarter. That beat market forecasts of 770 million euros and dampened speculation about a possible capital increase.

The bottom line was flattered by a 554 million euro tax gain and the pretax profit of 397 million euros in corporate banking and securities showed investment banking was not as strong as in previous quarters.

JP Morgan analysts noted that Deutsche’s investment banking “performance is weakish to U.S. peers”. Goldman Sachs <GS.N> posted record profit on the back of an investment banking windfall last month. [ID:nN21197777]

FRANKFURT, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank’s <DBKGn.DE> quarterly earnings rebounded from last year’s record losses helped by a one-off tax gain, as tighter regulations cloud the outlook for itself and European rivals.

Germany’s biggest lender on Thursday reported a 1.3 billion euro ($1.8 billion) net profit in the fourth quarter. That beat market forecasts of 770 million euros and dampened speculation about a possible capital increase.

The bottom line was flattered by a 554 million euro tax gain and the pretax profit of 397 million euros in corporate banking and securities showed investment banking was not as strong as in previous quarters.

JP Morgan analysts noted that Deutsche’s investment banking “performance is weakish to U.S. peers”. Goldman Sachs <GS.N> posted record profit on the back of an investment banking windfall last month [ID:nN21197777]

FRANKFURT, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Indebted auto parts supplier Continental AG <CONG.DE> will raise just over 1 billion euros ($1.44 billion) in fresh equity from a rights issue to repair its sagging balance sheet.

The company said late on Wednesday that its supervisory board dominated by large shareholder Schaeffler had approved the issuance of 31 million new shares at 35 euros each, which will raise its capital by nearly a fifth.

“Continental AG will receive gross proceeds from the rights issue of 1.085 billion euros,” it said in a statement.

The price represents a 14 percent discount to its closing price of 40.77 euros on Wednesday and is less than half the 75 euros Schaeffler paid late in 2008 to acquire 90 percent of the company’s stock.

FRANKFURT, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Germany’s largest financial companies have agreed to enforce the Group of 20 recommendations on bonus rules in 2009, a year before they must, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

German regulators had demanded that banks and insurers such as Deutsche Bank <DBKGn.DE> adopt the recommendations from 2010.

The G20 rules which were drawn up in the wake of the financial crisis require bonus payouts to be deferred over time, a move designed to discourage short-term risk taking.

Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank, later told reporters in Berlin that 11 of the country’s top banks and insurers had signed a declaration agreeing to this at the end of last week, and wanted to apply them for 2009.

FRANKFURT, Nov 25 (Reuters) – Deutsche Postbank <DPBGn.DE> said it would cut jobs and won’t pay a dividend until 2013 as it unveiled an aggressive restructuring plan to bolster its capital position.

Germany’s largest retail bank by customers said on Wednesday it would cut staff by around 10 percent, or 2,130 jobs, to 19,000 by end 2012 compared with the end-2008 level.

It said it would make 28 million euros ($42.2 million) in restructuring provisions starting in the fourth quarter.

News of the restructuring programme sent shares 1 percent higher to about 24.08 euros, outperforming the DJ Stoxx banks index <.SX7P> which was 0.3 percent lower.

FRANKFURT, Nov 25 (Reuters) – Commerzbank AG <CBKG.DE> is considering a capital increase and divestments among other options for repaying 16.4 billion euros ($24.5 billion) in government bailout money, Germany’s second-biggest lender said.

The German state in January took a 25 percent stake in Commerzbank as part of an 18.2 billion euro rescue package to stabilise the lender, which was rocked by the credit crisis and its takeover of loss-making rival Dresdner Bank.

Commerzbank on Wednesday reiterated it would repay the government’s tranche of non-voting capital contribution — a so-called “silent participation” — by 2012 at the latest, slides from a presentation for the bank’s investor day showed.

Germany’s number two bank behind Deutsche Bank AG <DBKGn.DE> said annual synergies from integrating Dresdner Bank will reach 2.4 billion euros, half a billion more than previously expected thanks to savings from procurement, processing and economies of scale.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Banks risk becoming addicted to cheap central bank cash used to fight the financial crisis and must prepare for its eventual withdrawal, the head of the ECB warned at a Frankfurt banking conference on Friday.

Financiers from the head of Deutsche Bank <DBKGn.DE> to the President of Germany’s Bundesbank urged bankers and regulators to learn the lessons of the global financial crisis and drive through changes to prevent future breakdowns.

European Central Bank policymakers met on Thursday for mid-month discussions ahead of a decision about exit strategy due at their December 3 policy meeting.

“Emergency treatment and strong medicines are sometimes necessary. But, if their use is prolonged, they can lead to dependence and even addiction,” ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet told a Euro Finance Week event.

FRANKFURT, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Bankers and regulators should learn the lessons of the global financial crisis and drive through changes to prevent future breakdowns, financiers said on Friday.

Bundesbank President Axel Weber said regulators must be resolute about pressing ahead with reform and reject criticism for perceived over-regulation as markets start recovering.

“We don’t give a damn what anyone says, because we will just implement it,” he told a Frankfurt banking conference.

“It is very important for us not to fall prey to influences on the way up or down

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s Bundesbank urged banks to use a markets recovery to restructure and prevent a rerun of the financial crisis even as Deutsche Bank’s chief called for a common bailout fund with taxpayer backing.

“The responsibility for avoiding future financial crisis lies with the credit industry itself,” said Bundesbank President Axel Weber, who also sits on the European Central Bank’s policymaking Governing Council.

“Our contribution as regulators will be that we help to make sure that that is recognized and carried out.”

Speaking at the same conference in Frankfurt, Deutsche Bank <DBKGn.DE> CEO Josef Ackermann defended the need for large global banks and backed the creation of an international bailout fund as a new tool to rescue stricken lenders.

FRANKFURT, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Germany’s Commerzbank <CBKG.DE> will introduce a claw-back option to its bonus system next year as the banking industry aims to stop the short-term risk-taking that helped bring about the financial crisis.

The bank, 25 percent owned by the German state after an 18 billion euro ($30 billion) bailout, is responding to public outrage over the eye-popping payouts made to bankers who mainly worked at the bank’s loss-making investment bank.

Although regulators and politicians broadly agree that risk-hungry behaviour by highly paid bankers was one of the main causes of the crisis, they have struggled to agree on how to regulate or cap bonuses.

Unicredit <CRDI.MI>, Morgan Stanley <MS.N> and UBS AG <UBSN.VX> have responded to political pressure by overhauling their bonus systems to include claw-back options. Deutsche Bank <DBKGn.DE> has said it will look at introducing such a measure.