Talking is silver, silence gold. This is the motto that Deutsche Bank has been pursuing for a few weeks when it comes to the punishment for windy real estate transactions in the USA.

It has now held it differently during the presentation of the figures for the third quarter: in detail, the bank lists what it has earned and where it has suffered losses. On the crucial question, however, she is silent: When does the comparison with the Americans come? How much money will he cost? And what changes in the US business of the bank will the deal result in the end?

"We do not say anything." "Please understand that we can not comment on it." "We're sorry, but we can not say anything about this procedure." Questions which the future of the financial institution will decide.

Obendrein is the bank with its problems in the middle of the hottest phase of the US election campaign. It is not foreseeable whether the settlement will be announced before 8 November. And what it means when he does not come, neither does anyone know that it is bad, if it comes before the election, then the punishment is hard, say the one. It would be bad if it came after the election, because the new administration would go even harder, say the others. There are only two of the discussion approaches.

The net profit climbed to 278 million euros

But one thing can be said with certainty: this hanging part damages the bank. "We have made a good headway in the restructuring of our bank," said John Cryan, but added, "However, this positive development has been overshadowed by the fact that negotiations on mortgage-backed securities in the US were the focus of attention." The bank wanted to end this matter as soon as possible.

The remaining uncertainty could also be seen in the share price of the money house: after the promised solid quarterly figures, the share rose by almost three and a half percent. Then again she slipped with almost one per cent into the minus. Investors simply do not know what will happen to them. Neither in the case of the major legal disputes nor in strategic investigations. What are some good results, which look less good on a second glance?

The professional market observers from other banks showed whether the figures were actually positively surprised at first. The net profit climbed to 278 million euros. Compared to the loss of six billion euros in the previous year's period, this sounds excellent. Only the six billion euro loss of the last year is mainly the result of high depreciation on central business areas of the bank. Chief Executive John Cryan had at that time prevailed as one of his first decisions.

The fact that the profit of 278 million euros is well above the analyst estimates, which had expected losses of around 600 million euros, has one reason for this: the market observers distribute the costs of legal disputes in their analyzes linearly over the year. Only in this way do they not fall, as is shown in the quarters.

Is the Deutsche Bank even more jobs?

After all, in the third quarter, Deutsche Bank actually improved somewhat in terms of operations - despite the clean-up work in the house. Revenues rose slightly from EUR 7.3 billion to EUR 7.5 billion a year earlier. Trading in securities grew ten percent to 2.6 billion euros. Business with private, corporate and corporate customers also grew. However, this was largely due to positive figures from the banking business. "In all other areas of the company, income went down, except for the effects already mentioned," the bank said. This was mainly due to the persistently low interest rates. This is not a good sign for the outlook.

And not for the staff either. John Cryan also agreed with the employees on further savings waves. In a letter to the employees, he wrote: "Unfortunately, we must assume that the situation will remain difficult for a while." Therefore, the conversion must not only be accelerated but also strengthened. Which means that Deutsche Bank will presumably cut even more jobs than the already announced 9,000 jobs.