Deutsche Bank battered by debt market slowdown Co-CEOs Juergen Fitschen (L) and Anshu Jain Deutsche Bank said its profits had been battered by a slowdown in the debt markets as it revealed a sharp fall in fixed income revenue and further costs for litigation and restructuring in the final quarter of 2013. The German lender announced a net loss of €965m for the last three months of the year as it rushed out its full-year numbers 10 days earlier than expected. News of a potential profit warning emerged last week. Analysts had expected net income of nearly €700m in the fourth quarter, according to an average polled last week by Bloomberg. The bank's losses come amid a slowdown in debt trading that has hit investment banks across Wall Street as investors have grappled with the impact of the US Federal Reserve's decision to slow its monetary stimulus. Deutsche was also hit by higher litigation and restructuring costs, with a loss in its non-core unit of €1.1bn in the fourth quarter. The German lender is in the process of slashing a further €250bn from its balance sheet as it races to deleverage amid an environment of increasing regulation for the banking sector. Revenues at the lender's investment bank arm fell 27 per cent in the fourth quarter from the same period the previous year, driven by a 31 per cent decline in fixed-income trading. The bank's net revenues for 2013 fell 5 per cent to €31.9bn. But the fall in its investment banking arm was more pronounced, with a 12 per cent dip in net revenues to €13.6bn. Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain, co-chief executives, said: "2013 was the second successive year in which we have invested in the bank's future growth and in further strengthening our controls while addressing legacy issues. These factors impacted our financial results. Deutsche's net loss in the fourth quarter was not as bad as its results in the same period of 2012, when the bank revealed a net loss of €2.2bn, driven by writedowns and increased litigation provisions. Deutsche Bank has recently come under fire from the German regulator BaFin for its internal handling of the Libor scandal. An internal investigation at the bank cleared executive board members of any involvement with the affair. But a BaFin report from August that was leaked to German media named the handling of three individuals with senior positions at the bank, Alan Cloete, Richard Walker and Andrew Procter, as examples of the board's failure to instigate cultural change. None of the three individuals has been accused of any wrongdoing.