Germany's largest bank is the first big European institution to use the opportunity to avoid having to account for some of its assets at their severely impaired market value.
Deutsche reclassified almost €25bn ($32.4bn) of assets as loans that it will now hold until maturity, including €7.1bn of funded leveraged finance loans – which the bank had intended should be sold on – and €9.7bn in asset-backed commercial paper conduits.
Through the shifts, Deutsche – which announced €1.2bn of writedowns – avoided a further €845m of writedowns on some assets. The changes helped the bank raise net income by €536m and meant Deutsche booked a quarterly net income of €414m.