Substantial uptrend in the number of customers and the volume of customer assets under custody

Munich, April 30, 2013.
The DAB Bank Group, Munich, generated a profit before taxes of €4.72 million in the first quarter of the current financial year. This figure was less than the strong profit before taxes earned in the first quarter of last year (Q1 2012: €8.51 million). In the current period, the bank's profit before taxes was particularly burdened by the interest rate environment in the European monetary zone.

The net interest income of €8.75 million was considerably less than the corresponding year-ago figure (Q1 2012: €13.87 million), which was influenced by the considerably higher level of interest rates prevailing at that time. "The historically low level of interest rates is considerably reducing the margins that can be earned in the deposit business and is posing a major challenge for banks. In this regard, moreover, no relief can be expected in the near future," said Ernst Huber, Management Board Speaker of DAB Bank.

Due to the simmering European debt crisis and the generally tense economic situation in Europe, investors are still very restrained in their capital markets activity. Despite this trend, DAB Bank executed 1.21 million trades for its customers in the first quarter, on the level of the prior year (Q1 2012: 1.23 million) and considerably higher than the corresponding figures for the preceding quarters. Consequently, DAB Bank's net commission income of €20.84 million was little changed from the corresponding year-ago figure (Q1 2012: €21.08 million).

DAB Bank was also successful in managing the cost side. Thanks to rigorous cost discipline, DAB Bank's administrative


expenses of €26.49 million were 6.9% less than the corresponding year-ago figure (Q1 2012: €28.45 million).

However, the savings achieved in the bank's administrative expenses and the solid profit from investments in the amount of €1.87 million were not enough to offset the weak net interest income.

On the other hand, DAB Bank registered substantial gains in the number of bank accounts and customer accounts. Customers opened 12,288 additional bank accounts in the first quarter. At the end of the quarter, therefore, DAB Bank carried 167,669 bank accounts for its customers (Q4 2012: 155,381). The number of customers served by DAB Bank rose by 5,533 to 602,661 (Q4 2012: 597.128). "In February, we launched a new brand image, which has met with an extremely positive response," Ernst Huber said.

DAB Bank also registered a significant increase in the volume of customer assets held in custody. At the end of the first quarter, DAB Bank administered customer assets worth €30.18 billion, that being €1.8 billion more than at the start of the year. Net fund inflows accounted for more than half this increase. "In these uncertain times, we consider this to be a special vote of confidence by our customers in the strength and stability of DAB Bank," Ernst Huber said.

In February, DAB Bank introduced a new checking account, featuring an attractive interest rate on credit balances, a fair interest rate on overdrafts, a credit card and no fees ever. In consideration of its excellent terms and features, DAB Bank's checking account was recently named the "Best Online Account" in a comparison test conducted by the magazine Focus-Money. Also in February, DAB Bank launched an innovative trading platform, DAB Best Price, which makes it even easier to trade stocks.

¹ Bank accounts = Checking, call-money, term deposit and savings accounts.
² Net financial income = net interest income + trading profit/loss + profit/loss from investments.

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