Huge bonuses at Deutsche Bank despite 2017 loss

Germany's top lender Deutsche Bank said it quadrupled bonus payouts to staff in 2017, despite booking a bigger-than-expected net loss for the year.

The bank said it paid out 2.16 billion euros ($2.6 billion) in bonuses, with the lion's share going to the investment banking division.

The huge cash rewards were announced in the Frankfurt-based bank's final annual report, based on audited figures, which also upwardly revised its net loss for 2017 to 751 million euros. In a preliminary report last month, the lender had initially calculated 2017's net loss at 512 million euros, its third straight year in the red.

In a statement to shareholders, Deutsche chief executive John Cryan said he recognised that the decision to boost bonuses "was highly contentious for many given the reported net loss in 2017". But he said the compensation was necessary to hold onto the best talents.

"If we want to live up to our claim of being the leading European bank with a global network, we have to invest in our employees," he said.

Some 1.3 billion of the reward money went to the Deutsche's corporate and investment banking division, which employees around 17,000 people. Deutsche Bank managers meanwhile again waived their bonuses, as they have been doing since 2015 amid growing criticism of top executives taking home huge salaries despite poor company results.

The 2017 bonus bonanza is more than four times higher than the 546 million euros spent in 2016, when the bank made a 1.4 billion euro loss.

Deutsche, which is in the throes of a tough restructuring and mired in costly legal woes, last month blamed 2017's disappointing performance on corporate tax reforms in the United States.