Deutsche Bank posts $6.2 billion fourth-quarter loss

Deutsche Bank, the biggest German bank, reported on Thursday a net loss of €4.8 billion in the fourth quarter, or $6.2 billion, compared with a profit of €953 million in the same period a year earlier, which was in line with its pre-announcement on January 14.

The bank said it had made a net loss of €3.9 billion for all of 2008, its first annual loss in more than 50 years.

"We are very disappointed at our fourth-quarter result, and at the consequent full-year net loss in 2008," chief executive Josef Ackermann said in a statement yesterday. "Operating conditions in the quarter were completely unprecedented, and exposed some weaknesses in our business model. We therefore are repositioning our platform in some core businesses."