Employee Benefits |
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| Employee Benefits [Abstract] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Employee Benefits | 33 — Employee Benefits Share-Based Compensation Plans The Group made grants of share-based compensation under the Deutsche Bank Equity Plan. This plan represents a contingent right to receive Deutsche Bank common shares after a specified period of time. The award recipient is not entitled to receive dividends during the vesting period of the award. The share awards granted under the terms and conditions of the Deutsche Bank Equity Plan may be forfeited fully or partly if the recipient voluntarily terminates employment before the end of the relevant vesting period (or release period for Upfront Awards). Vesting usually continues after termination of employment in cases such as redundancy or retirement. Deferred share awards are subject to forfeiture provisions and performance conditions until release. In countries where legal or other restrictions hinder the delivery of shares, a cash plan variant of the Deutsche Bank Equity Plan was used for granting awards, and for employees of certain legal entities, deferred equity is replaced with restricted shares due to local regulatory requirements. Please note that this table does not cover awards granted to the Management Board. For awards granted under the DWS Equity Plan, please refer to the DWS Share-Based Compensation Plans section. The following table sets forth the basic terms of these share plans:
1For InstVV-regulated employees (and Senior Management) a further retention period of twelve months applies 2For grant year 2019 divisions were called CIB, for grant years 2020 and 2021 CIB is split into CB/IB/CRU 3Share delivery takes place after a further retention period of twelve months 4Annual and Retention/New Hire awards include grants made under the Restricted Share Plan from 2019-2025 5Off-Cycle awards granted up to 2020 Furthermore, the Group offers a broad-based employee share ownership plan entitled Global Share Purchase Plan. The Global Share Purchase Plan offers employees in specific countries the opportunity to purchase Deutsche Bank shares in monthly installments over one year. At the end of the purchase cycle, the Group matches the acquired stock in a ratio of one to one up to a maximum of ten free shares, provided that the employee remains at Deutsche Bank Group for another year. In total, 12,775 staff from 21 countries enrolled in the cycle that began in November 2025. The Group has other local share-based compensation plans, none of which, individually or in the aggregate, are material to the consolidated financial statements. The following table sets out the movements in share award units, including grants under the cash plan variant of the Deutsche Bank Equity Plan.
The following table sets out key information regarding awards granted, released and remaining in the year.
Share-based payment transactions resulting in a cash payment give rise to a liability, which amounted to approximately € 20 million and € 14 million for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. The grant volume of outstanding share awards was approximately € 1.1 billion and € 1.0 billion as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Thereof, approximately € 0.8 billion and € 0.8 billion had been recognized as compensation expense in the reporting year or prior to that. Hence, compensation expense for deferred share-based compensation not yet recognized amounted to approximately € 0.3 billion and € 0.2 billion as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. DWS Share-Based Compensation Plans The DWS Group made grants of share-based compensation under the DWS Equity Plan. This plan represents a contingent right to receive a cash payment by reference to the value of DWS shares during a specified time period. In September 2018 one-off Initial Public Offering (IPO) related awards under the DWS Stock Appreciation Rights (SAR) Plan were granted to all DWS employees. A limited number of DWS senior managers were granted a one-off IPO-related Performance Share Unit under the DWS Equity Plan instead. For members of the Executive Board, one-off IPO-related awards under the DWS Equity Plan were granted in January 2019. The DWS Stock Appreciation Rights Plan represents a contingent right to receive a cash payment equal to any appreciation (or gain) in the value of a set number of notional DWS shares over a fixed period of time. This award does not provide any entitlement to receive DWS shares, voting rights or associated dividends. The DWS Equity Plan is a phantom share plan representing a contingent right to receive a cash payment by reference to the value of DWS shares during a specified period of time. The award recipient for any share-based compensation plan is not entitled to receive dividends during the vesting period of the award. The share awards granted under the terms and conditions of any share-based compensation plan are forfeited fully or partly if the recipient voluntarily terminates employment before the end of the relevant vesting period (or the end of the retention period for Upfront Awards). Vesting usually continues after termination of employment in cases such as redundancy or retirement. The following table sets forth the basic terms of the DWS share-based plans:
1Depending on their individual regulatory status, a six month retention period (AIFMD/UCITS MRTs) or a twelve month retention period (InstVV, and/or IFD MRTs starting from 2023) applies after vesting 2Unless the employee received Performance Share Unit Award 3For outstanding awards, a 4-year exercise period applies following vesting/retention period The following table sets out the movements in share award units.
The following table sets out key information regarding awards granted, released and remaining in the year.
The fair value of outstanding share-based awards was approximately € 64 million and € 74 million as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Of the awards, approximately € 48 million and € 63 millionhas been recognized in the income statement up to the period ending 2025 and 2024 respectively, of which € 14 millionand € 40 million as of December 31, 2025 and 2024 relate to fully vested awards. Total unrecognized expense related to share-based plans was approximately € 16 million and € 12 million as of December 31, 2025 and 2024 respectively, dependent on future share price development. The fair value of the DWS Stock Appreciation Rights Plan awards has been measured using the generalized Black- Scholes model. The liabilities incurred are re-measured at the end of each reporting period until settlement. The principal inputs being the market value on reporting date, discounted for any dividends foregone over the holding periods of the award, and adjustment for expected and actual levels of vesting which includes estimating the number of eligible employees leaving the Group and number of employees eligible for early retirement. The inputs used in the measurement of the fair values at grant date and measurement date were as follows.
Given there is no liquid market for implied volatility of DWS shares, the calculation of DWS share price volatility is based on 5-year historical data for DWS and a comparable peer group. Post-employment Benefit Plans Nature of Plans The Group sponsors a number of post-employment benefit plans on behalf of its employees, both defined contribution plans and defined benefit plans. The Group’s plans are accounted for based on the nature and substance of the plan. Generally, for defined benefit plans the value of a participant’s accrued benefit is based on each employee’s remuneration and length of service; contributions to defined contribution plans are typically based on a percentage of each employee’s remuneration. The rest of this note focuses predominantly on the Group’s defined benefit plans. The Group’s defined benefit plans are primarily described on a geographical basis, reflecting differences in the nature and risks of benefits, as well as in the respective regulatory environments. In particular, the requirements set by local regulators can vary significantly and determine the design and financing of the benefit plans to a certain extent. Key information is also shown based on participant status, which provides a broad indication of the maturity of the Group’s obligations.
1U.S. Total defined benefit obligation is inclusive of the unfunded U.S. Medicare Plan € 105 million in addition to defined benefit pension plans. The U.S. defined benefit pension funding ratio excluding Medicare is 96%
1U.S. Total defined benefit obligation is inclusive of the unfunded U.S. Medicare Plan € 120 million in addition to defined benefit pension plans. The U.S. defined benefit pension funding ratio excluding Medicare is 96% The majority of the Group’s defined benefit plan obligations relate to Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. Within the other countries, the largest obligation relates to Switzerland. In Germany and some continental European countries, post-employment benefits are usually agreed on a collective basis with respective employee workers councils, unions or their equivalent. The Group’s main pension plans are governed by boards of trustees, fiduciaries or their equivalent. Post-employment benefits can form an important part of an employee’s total remuneration. The Group’s approach is that their design shall be attractive to employees in the respective market, but sustainable for the Group to provide over the longer term. At the same time, the Group tries to limit its risks related to provision of such benefits. Consequently, the Group has moved to offer defined contribution plans in many locations over recent years. In the past the Group typically offered pension plans based on final pay prior to retirement. These types of benefits still form a significant part of the pension obligations for participants in deferred and payment status. Currently, in Germany and the United States, the main defined benefit pension plans for active staff are cash account type plans where the Group credits an annual amount to individual accounts based on an employee’s current compensation. Dependent on the plan rules, the accounts increase either at a fixed interest rate or participate in market movements of certain underlying investments to limit the investment risk for the Group. Sometimes, particularly in Germany, there is a guaranteed benefit amount within the plan rules, e.g. payment of at least the amounts contributed. Upon retirement, beneficiaries may usually opt for a lump sum, a fixed number of annual installments or for conversion of the accumulated account balance into a life annuity. This conversion is often based on market conditions and mortality assumptions at retirement. The Group also sponsors retirement and termination indemnity plans in several countries, as well as some post- employment medical plans for a number of current and retired employees, mainly in the United States. The post- employment medical plans typically pay fixed percentages of medical expenses of eligible retirees after a set deductible has been met. In the United States, once a retiree is eligible for Medicare, the Group contributes to a Health Reimbursement Account and the retiree is no longer eligible for the Group’s medical program. The Group’s total defined benefit obligation for post-employment medical plans was € 126 million and € 142 million on December 31, 2025 and December 31, 2024, respectively. In combination with the benefit structure, these plans represent limited risk for the Group, given the nature and size of the post-retirement medical plan liabilities versus the size of the Group’s balance sheet at year end 2025. The following amounts of expected benefit payments from the Group’s defined benefit plans include benefits attributable to employees’ past and estimated future service and include both amounts paid from the Group’s external pension trusts and paid directly by the Group in respect of unfunded plans.
Multi-employer Plans In Germany, the Group is a member of the BVV Versicherungsverein des Bankgewerbes a.G. (BVV) together with other financial institutions. The BVV offers retirement benefits to eligible employees in Germany as a complement to post- employment benefit promises of the Group. Both employers and employees contribute on a regular basis to the BVV. The BVV provides annuities of a fixed amount to individuals on retirement and increases these fixed amounts if surplus assets arise within the plan. According to legislation in Germany, the employer is ultimately liable for providing the benefits to its employees. An increase in benefits may also arise due to additional obligations to retirees for the effects of inflation. BVV is a multi-employer defined benefit plan. However, in line with industry practice, the Group accounts for it as a defined contribution plan since insufficient information is available to identify assets and liabilities relating to the Group’s current and former employees, primarily because the BVV does not fully allocate plan assets to beneficiaries nor to member companies. Governance and Risk The Group maintains a Pensions Committee to oversee its pension and related risks on a global basis. This Committee meets at least quarterly and reports directly to the Senior Executive Compensation Committee. Within this context, the Group develops and maintains guidelines for governance and risk management, including funding, asset allocation and actuarial assumption setting. During and after acquisitions or changes in the external environment (e.g., legislation, taxation), topics such as the general plan design or potential plan amendments are considered. Any plan changes follow a process requiring approval by Group Human Resources and, above a certain threshold, also of the Pensions Committee. Pension risk management is embedded in the Group’s risk management organization, with strong focus on market risks given importance of capital market developments (e.g., interest rate, credit spread, price inflation) for the value of plan assets and liabilities, hence IFRS and regulatory capital. Risk management thereby encompasses regular measurement, monitoring and reporting of risks via specific metrics, as well as a risk control framework, e.g., via the establishment of risk limits or thresholds as applicable. Risk management activities also include the consideration, review and measurement of other financial risks, e.g., risks from demographic and other actuarial assumptions (e.g., longevity risk) but also the assessment of model, valuation and other non-financial risks. In the Group’s key pension countries, the Group’s largest post-employment benefit plan risk exposures relate to potential changes in credit spreads, interest rates, price inflation and longevity, that are partially mitigated through the investment strategy adopted. To the extent that pension plans are funded, the assets held mitigate some of the liability risks, but introduce investment risk. Overall, the Group seeks to minimize the impact of pensions on the Group’s financial position from market movements, subject to balancing the trade-offs involved in financing post-employment benefits, regulatory capital and constraints from local funding or accounting requirements. Funding The Group maintains various external pension trusts to fund the majority of its defined benefit plan obligations. The Group’s funding principle is to maintain funding of the defined benefit obligation by plan assets within a range of 90% to 100% of the obligation, subject to meeting any local statutory requirements. The Group has also determined that certain plans should remain unfunded, although their funding approach is subject to periodic review, e.g., when local regulations or practices change. Obligations for the Group’s unfunded plans are accrued on the balance sheet. For many of the externally funded defined benefit plans there are local minimum funding requirements. The Group can decide on any additional plan contributions, with reference to the Group’s funding principle. There are some locations, e.g., the United Kingdom, where the trustees and the Group jointly agree contribution levels. In most countries, the Group expects to receive an economic benefit from any plan surpluses of plan assets compared to defined benefit obligations, typically by way of reduced future contributions. Given the relatively high funding level and the investment strategy adopted in the Group’s key funded defined benefit plans, any minimum funding requirements that may apply are not expected to place the Group under any material adverse cash strain in the short term. With reference to the Group’s funding principle, the Group considers not re-claiming benefits paid from the Group’s assets as an equivalent to making cash contributions into the external pension trusts during the year. In order to limit the extent to which the Group breached the upper end of its target funding ratio within Germany, the Group has claimed around € 540 million and € 520 million from the trust in 2025 and 2024, respectively, from the plan assets which represents the benefits paid from the Group’s assets on behalf of the trust. For post-retirement medical plans, the Group accrues for obligations over the period of employment and pays the benefits from Group assets when the benefits become due. Actuarial Methodology and Assumptions December 31 is the measurement date for all plans. All plans are valued by independent qualified actuaries using the projected unit credit method. A Group policy provides guidance to ensure consistency globally on setting actuarial assumptions which are finally determined by the Group’s Pensions Committee. Senior management of the Group is regularly informed of movements and changes in key actuarial assumptions. The key actuarial assumptions applied in determining the defined benefit obligations on December 31 are presented below in the form of weighted averages.
1Cash balance interest crediting rate in line with the 30-year U.S. government bond yield For the Group’s most significant pension plans in the key countries, the discount rate used at each measurement date is set based on a high quality corporate bond yield curve, which is derived using a bond universe sourced from reputable third-party market data providers, and reflects the timing, amount and currency of the future expected benefit payments for the respective plan. The price inflation assumptions in the Eurozone and the United Kingdom are set with reference to market measures of inflation based on inflation swap rates in those markets at each measurement date. For other countries, the price inflation assumptions are typically based on long term forecasts by Consensus Economics Inc. The assumptions for the increases in future compensation levels and for increases to pensions in payment are developed separately for each plan, where relevant. Each is set based on the price inflation assumption and reflecting the Group’s reward structure or policies in each market, as well as relevant local statutory and plan-specific requirements. In 2024, the Group introduced a refinement to the methodology for estimating increases to pensions in payment for its main German pension plan to better reflect the effects of recent short-term inflation, which resulted in a benefit recognized in Other Comprehensive Income of € 100 million. Among other assumptions, mortality assumptions can be significant in measuring the Group’s obligations under its defined benefit plans. These assumptions have been set in accordance with current best estimate in the respective countries. Future potential improvements in longevity have been considered and included where appropriate. Reconciliation in Movement of Liabilities and Assets – Impact on Financial Statements
1For funded plans only 2Thereof € 1.2 billion recognized in Other assets and € 261 millionin Other liabilities
1For funded plans only 2Thereof € 1.3 billion recognized in Other assets and € 317 million in Other liabilities Investment Strategy The Group’s investment objective is to protect the Group from adverse impacts of its defined benefit pension plans on key financial metrics. The primary focus is to protect the plans’ IFRS funded status in the case of adverse market scenarios. Investment managers manage pension assets in line with investment mandates or guidelines as agreed with the pension plans’ trustees and investment committees. For key defined benefit plans for which the Group aims to protect the IFRS funded status, the Group applies a liability driven investment approach. Risks from mismatches between fluctuations in the present value of the defined benefit obligations and plan assets due to capital market movements are minimized, subject to balancing relevant trade-offs. This is achieved by allocating plan assets closely to the market risk factor exposures of the pension liability to interest rates, credit spreads and inflation. Thereby, plan assets broadly reflect the underlying risk profile and currency of the pension obligations. Where the desired hedging level for market risks cannot be achieved with physical instruments (i.e., corporate and government bonds), derivatives are employed. Derivative overlays mainly include interest rate, inflation swaps and credit default swaps. Other instruments are also used, such as interest rate futures and options. In practice, a completely hedged approach is impractical, for instance because of insufficient market depth for ultra-long-term corporate bonds, as well as liquidity and cost considerations. Therefore, plan assets contain further return-seeking asset categories such as equity, real estate, high yield bonds or emerging markets bonds to create long-term value and achieve diversification benefits. Furthermore, this shift in the investment strategy allows for actively taken market risk exposures from interest rates and credit spreads within defined limits governed by the Pensions Committee. As a result, the market risk from plan assets has been reduced. The Group purchased insurance to cover € 1.1 billion uninsured liability for the U.K. Staff Scheme in 2024 which negatively impacted Other Comprehensive Income in the Group’s financial statement by approximately € 120 million. In total, the Group has entered into five buy-in transactions in the U.K. with third-party insurers protecting the Group from movements in defined benefit obligations of around € 2.6 billion as at December 31, 2025. Plan asset allocation to key asset classes The following table shows the asset allocation of the Group’s funded defined benefit plans to key asset classes, i.e., exposures include physical securities in discretely managed portfolios and underlying asset allocations of any commingled funds used to invest plan assets. Asset amounts in the following table include both “quoted” (i.e., Level 1 assets in accordance with IFRS 13 – amounts invested in markets where the fair value can be determined directly from prices which are quoted in active, liquid markets) and “other” (i.e., Level 2 and 3 assets in accordance with IFRS 13) assets.
1Allocation of equity exposure is broadly in line with the typical index in the respective market, e.g., the equity portfolio’s benchmark of the UK retirement benefit plans is the MSCI All Countries World Index 2Investment-grade means BBB and above. Average credit rating exposure for the Group’s main plans is around A 3This position contains commingled funds which could not be segregated into the other asset categories The following table sets out the Group’s funded defined benefit plan assets only invested in “quoted” assets, i.e., Level 1 assets in accordance with IFRS 13.
1Negative amounts relate to short-term liabilities 2Allocation of equity exposure is broadly in line with the typical index in the respective market, e.g., the equity portfolio’s benchmark of the UK retirement benefit plans is the MSCI All Countries World Index 3Investment-grade means BBB and above. Average credit rating exposure for the Group’s main plans is around A The following tables show the asset allocation of the “quoted” and “other” defined benefit plan assets by key geography in which they are invested.
Plan assets include derivative transactions with Group entities with an overall positive market value of around € 630 million at December 31, 2025 and € 810 million December 31, 2024, respectively. There is neither a material amount of securities issued by the Group nor other claims on Group assets included in the fair value of plan assets. The plan assets do not include any real estate which is used by the Group. Key Risk Sensitivities The Group’s defined benefit obligations are sensitive to changes in capital market conditions and actuarial assumptions. Sensitivities to capital market movements and key assumption changes are presented in the following table. Each market risk factor or assumption is changed in isolation. Sensitivities of the defined benefit obligations are approximated using geometric extrapolation methods based on plan durations for the respective assumption. Duration is a risk measure that indicates the broad sensitivity of the obligations to a change in an underlying assumption and provides a reasonable approximation for small to moderate changes in those assumptions. For example, the interest rate duration is derived from the change in the defined benefit obligation to a change in the interest rate based on information provided by the local actuaries of the respective plans. The resulting duration is used to estimate the remeasurement liability loss or gain from changes in the interest rate. For other assumptions, a similar approach is used to derive the respective sensitivity results. For defined benefit pension plans, changes in capital market conditions will impact the plan obligations via actuarial assumptions (e.g., via the discount rate and price inflation rate) as well as the plan assets’ fair value. Where the Group applies a liability driven investment approach or has insured part of the obligations as in the U.K., the Group’s overall risk exposure to such changes is reduced. To help readers gain a better understanding of the Group’s risk exposures to key capital market movements, the net impact of the change in the defined benefit obligations and plan assets due to a change of the related market risk factor or underlying actuarial assumption is shown. Where changes in actuarial assumptions do not affect plan assets, only the impact on the defined benefit obligations is reported. Asset-related sensitivities are derived for the Group’s major plans by using risk sensitivity factors determined by the Group’s Market Risk Management function. These sensitivities are calculated based on information provided by the plans’ investment managers and extrapolated linearly to reflect the approximate change of the plan assets’ market value in case of a change in the underlying risk factor. The sensitivities illustrate plausible variations over time in capital market movements and key actuarial assumptions. The Group is not in a position to provide a view on the likelihood of these capital market or assumption changes. While these sensitivities illustrate the overall impact on the funded status of the changes shown, the significance of the impact and the range of reasonable possible alternative assumptions may differ between the different plans that comprise the aggregated results. Even though plan assets and plan obligations are sensitive to similar risk factors, actual changes in plan assets and obligations may not fully offset each other due to imperfect correlations between market risk factors and actuarial assumptions. Caution should be used when extrapolating these sensitivities due to non-linear effects that changes in capital market conditions and key actuarial assumptions may have on the overall funded status. Any management actions that may be taken to mitigate the inherent risks in the post-employment defined benefit plans are not reflected in these sensitivities.
1Expected changes in the fair value of plan assets contain the simulated impact from the biggest plans in Germany, the U.K., the U.S., Channel Islands, Switzerland and Belgium which cover over 99% of the total fair value of plan assets. The fair value of plan assets for other plans is assumed to be unchanged for this presentation 2Incorporates sensitivity to changes in pension benefits to the extent linked to the price inflation assumption 3Estimated to be equivalent to an increase of around 1 year in overall life expectancy Expected cash flows The following table shows expected cash flows for post-employment benefits in 2026, including contributions to the Group’s external pension trusts in respect of funded plans, direct payment to beneficiaries in respect of unfunded plans, as well as contributions to defined contribution plans.
Expense of employee benefits The following table presents a breakdown of specific expenses according to the requirements of IAS 19 and IFRS 2.
1Severance related items under Service Costs are reclassified to Expenses for Severance payments 2Including expenses for new hire awards and the acceleration of expenses not yet amortized due to the discontinuation of employment including those amounts which are recognized as part of the Group’s restructuring expenses 3Excluding the acceleration of expenses for deferred compensation awards not yet amortized. Severance related items under Service Costs were reclassified to Expense for Severance payments
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