Deutsche Bank’s corporate banking and securities arm has taken a €1.2bn impairment charge related to historical acquisitions – including Bankers Trust made more than a decade ago – which helped drag the unit to a loss in the fourth quarter.

The German bank today said corporate banking and securities suffered a €548m pre-tax loss in the fourth quarter, compared with a €310m profit in the same period the previous year. This quarterly loss came on the back of what one analyst called "disappointing" fixed-income sales and trading revenues and what the bank referred to as the "impairment of intangible assets".