Deutsche Bank's first-quarter net profit jumped to €941 million after posting a loss of €219 million in the same period last year.
The net profit surpassed analysts' forecasts - which ranged from €732 million to €800 million - while loan loss provision, at €123 million from €380 million the year before, was better than the consensus range of €130 million to €230 million.
Pretax profit soared to €1.561 billion from €234 million while underlying pretax profit - which adjusts for gains and losses on securities available for sale, as well as those from investments and businesses sold - climbed 45 per cent to €1.4 billion from €940 million.
Management board chairman Mr Josef Ackermann said Deutsche Bank achieved an underlying pretax return on equity of 22 per cent compared to 13 per cent, "making good progress towards our objective of 25 per cent".
Mr Ackermann had said in February the goal of 25 per cent pretax return on equity implies an underlying pretax profit of €6.5 billion, which he said the bank should be able to achieve this year.
The bank today said first-quarter total revenues increased 23 per cent to €6.2 billion from €5 billion indicating "good performance" in sales and trading within the Corporate and Investment banking as well as in Private Clients and Asset Management.