Germany's largest bank, Deutsche Bank, said on September 20 that the international credit crisis would seriously affect third quarter results, after criticising peers for taking excessive risks in the US subprime home loan market.
"Deutsche Bank also made errors during this crisis," chief executive Josef Ackermann acknowledged in an interview to be broadcast later in the day on ZDF television.
Ackermann said the bank's third-quarter results would be affected because 29 billion euros' (40 billion dollars') worth of credit agreements for large acquisitions must be re-assessed.
Sal Oppenheim analyst Thomas Stoegner said his firm forecast that Deutsche Bank would write off around 625 million euros to cover the losses. "We estimate 625 million in charges for leveraged loans for the second half of this year," Stoegner told AFP.
Shares in the bank plunged by 2.99 percent to 91.35 euros in midday trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange, while the DAX index of leading shares was down by 0.52 percent overall.
"The comments were not extremely surprising, but they sound a little worse than Ackermann's latest statements," a Frankfurt trader said. The bank had appeared to have weathered the international banking storm, while Ackermann had criticised managers of German banks IKB and SachsenLB, who he said had underestimated risks in the US subprime market.
Ackermann did not say how much the crisis would cost his bank but warned it would probably not hire 4,000 more staff by the end of the year as planned.