Deutsche Bank Mexico Reit

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Q22026 analyst conference call and live webcast. I am Matilda, the chorus call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and 1 on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Selke Nicole Schipa, Deputy Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Thank you for joining us for our second quarter and first half year 2026 results call. As usual, our Chief Executive Officer Christian Seeling will speak first followed by our Chief Financial Officer, Raja Akram. The presentation, as always, is available to download in the Investor Relations section of our website at db.com. Before we get started, let me just remind you that the presentation contains forward-looking statements which may not develop as we currently expect. We therefore ask you to take notice of the precautionary warning at the end of our material. With that, let me hand over to Christian.

Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. We are very pleased with the performance we delivered and the momentum we achieved in the first half of 2026. We continued to invest in our global house bank, which paves the way for further growth, efficiency gains, and value creation for shareholders. We grew revenues to 17.2 billion euros, while on track to reach our full-year ambition of around 33 billion euros. This momentum enabled us to deliver a post-tax profit of 4.1 billion euros, our highest ever for a half year. We made further progress on our key ratios. Post-tax RTE increased to 11.9%, while our cost-income ratio improved to 60.9%, despite the impact of SVA-accreted strategic actions we took in the second quarter. Our TG1 capital ratio was 13.9% in line with our operating range. Strong organic capital generation enabled us to support business growth and make distribution deductions in line with our 60% payout ratio. And today, we are taking the next step. We are announcing a new 500 million euro share buyback from 2026 net income. This is the first time we are executing a buyback from the current year's earnings, a clear sign of the earnings momentum and confidence we have built in the first half. This momentum positions us well to deliver our 2026 objectives and reinforces our confidence in achieving our 2028 targets. Now, a few words on the progress we made on scaling our global house bank on slide 3. We made tangible progress across all three levers of our strategy. We delivered revenue growth of 5% with strong contribution from the investment bank and focus growth areas. We maintained strict capital discipline. We announced the sale of the private bank's India franchise, which will be SBA positive up on closing next year, and we took a number of additional capital accretive measures across the franchise. Third, we progressed our scalable operating model. We continue to simplify our operating model in the private bank and made targeted investments in technology and front-to-back capabilities across the group. For example, in the corporate bank, we continued investing in our cash management capabilities and strengthening our coverage and sales platforms with multinational companies. Our franchise performance indicators are all positive, with significant business volume growth across businesses. Asset dollar management grew by nearly 270 billion euros, or 16% year-on-year to 1.92 trillion euros, supported by record inflows of 56 billion euros across private banks and asset management in the first half year. Loans increased by 4% year-on-year, driven by momentum in the corporate bank and fixed financing. Deposits rose by 7% year-on-year, with strength across the corporate bank and private bank. Furthermore, we delivered strong performance across all our divisions, as you can see on slide 4. All divisions delivered returns on tangible equity of 12% or higher. The private bank's transformation continues. We made progress on our target ratios, despite absorbing costs relating to continued investments and the exit of the DINIA friendships. and grew client assets by more than 55 billion euros in the first half year. The division has now completed the branch closure planned for 2026 and continued to strengthen wealth management coverage. Asset management grew assets under management by 97 billion euros in the second quarter alone, which included record net client flows of 25 billion euros. The corporate bank continued to grow business volumes, invoked loans and deposits, reflecting The strengths of our corporate client franchise. And the Investor Bank supported clients through hidden market volatility, reinforcing our position as a trusted partner and gateway for investing in Europe, while also growing EMEA market share in investment banking and capital markets. Based on disclosures from peers so far, we are confident that with our record second quarter performance, We have also expanded our market share in pink. At our investor deep dive in November, we made clear that we view a ROTE of greater than 13% as a flaw, dependent on the successful execution of our strategy. We also identified several trends that could provide further upside over time, and we briefly update you on how those trends are developing today. First, German structural reforms including health and pension reforms are taking shape. The government's 34-point plan should boost economic activity in the years ahead. Fiscal expansion is slowly but steadily gaining momentum. Investment spending in the infrastructure and defense sectors has started. Our corporate bank and investment bank are ideally placed to capture opportunities. We are seeing encouraging steps in private pension reforms. With Deutsche Bank's combination of 19 million private bank customers in Germany, wealth management expertise, and Germany's leading asset management franchise, we are well-placed to support existing and new clients with investment solutions and help them participate in opportunities as the market develops. The second trend is AI, which is evolving even faster than we expected, and the potential benefits for us are becoming clearer. The third trend is savings and investment unions. Across Europe, momentum is building, especially as pension reforms are top of the agenda in Germany. Our asset-gathering businesses, alongside the investment bank and corporate bank, are very well-placed to capture opportunities for more integrated markets, new frameworks and growing investment flows as and when they arise, but also to provide clients with access to evolving capital markets and assist with financing needs. The fourth trend we discussed in November is the more level regulatory playing field. We are encouraged to see an increasing policy focused on competitiveness, simplification and growth in Europe. Over time, we expect this to be supportive on several dimensions. The European Commission is taking a number of initiatives, including the recent proposal with the broader legislative package expected in early 2027. We believe that among European bank regulators, there is both increasing flexibility and political will to address some of the unintended consequences of CRR3 while not compromising on resilience. This includes support for lending activities such as mortgage and financing for unrated corporates by addressing the transitional arrangements currently in place. Temporary relief on FRTB as soon as January 2027 and expected permanent relief by a legislative package later on would also maintain the competitiveness of European banks in trading and capital markets. In addition, efforts to streamline the EU macro-prudential framework could lead to fewer buffers and more simplified requirements across member states. In other words, Across all four areas, the trends are positive. Of course, the speed and exact shape of change is hard to predict, but the overall direction is encouraging. What this means for us? First, our financial and strategic progress reinforces our confidence in delivering an ROTE of greater than 30% in 2028. And the developments in these trends strengthen our view that there is considerable upside to our targets. Second, we're actively positioning the bank to capture these opportunities through targeted investments, focused capital deployment, and continued engagement with policymakers. With that, let me head over to Raja.

Thank you, Christian, and good morning.