Europe’'s biggest banks and an oil giant reported generally optimistic first-quarter results on Wednesday, despite executives pointing to the growing uncertainty stemming from the Middle East conflict and its ripple effects on energy prices, consumer confidence and European interest rates.
Leading European banks saw a short-term increase in their performance as commercial revenues benefited from fluctuations linked to the Iranian conflict, despite increased long-term macroeconomic risks.
GermanyDeutsche Bank, ’'s largest lender %A record post-tax profit of €2.2 billion every three months with an increase of 8, while pre-tax profit %7 increase to 3 billion Euro’. Pre-tax profit of the private bank division %It increased by 39 to 681 million Euro’.
The Net Income %2 increases to 8.7 billion Euro’.
The assets under management rose to 1.8 trillion Euro’, supported by a net entry of 22 billion Euro’ in private banks and asset management units.
Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing said: “The record profit of this quarter gives us a great start to the next phase of our strategy.
“We have the balance sheet strength, capabilities and strategic location to serve our customers worldwide in a dynamic environment, ” added.
CFO Raja Akram pointed out that artificial intelligence and process restructuring are key drivers of cost resilience, adding that the investment bank serves as a valuable advisor to customers in a “zorian macroeconomic environment.
At the same time, credit losses equivalents, with the bank pointing to a macroeconomic indicator reflecting a broader uncertainty %It increased by 10 to 519 million Euro’.
The results came at a time of heightened economic and geopolitical uncertainty. The Middle East conflict, which erupted at the end of February, triggered eurozone inflation in March. %raised 2,5’e and for the first time in years, the European Central Bank strengthened expectations for ’'s interest rate hike; This shift supports net interest margins in the near term, but increases long-term credit risk due to the reflection of energy costs on households and companies.
Deutsche Bank has maintained its all-year revenue target of around €33 billion and said a €1 billion repurchase is on the way. Following the update, the shares of Avrupa’da are approx. %3 is down.
Banco Santander: Spanish banking giant announces impressive results
Banco Santander, the largest lender by market capitalization of ’, also reported record results; attributable profit, influenced by earnings of €1.9 billion from the sale of Santander Bank Polska’ %€5.5 billion increased to €’, up 60 percent.
When this one-time subtracted, the base profit is approx. increased to 3.6 billion Euro’. Income, net interest income and wages %6With the effect of ’ increase %4 increase to 15.1 billion Euro’.
The costs are %The efficiency increased by 3 drops. Santander, medium single-digit income growth and ,8-%He said he is on track to achieve his goals all year, including a CET1 rate of 13’.
Rate of capital .4’e rose and provided enough buffer to absorb potential stress.
The bank also continued its shareholder returns with a repurchase target of 5 billion Euro’ and a repurchase target of at least 10 billion Euro’ in 2025-26’.
According to the results of 2025, the total wage paid to shareholders is around 7.1 billion euros, which is roughly equivalent to the attributable profit. %It is equivalent to 50’.
A warning came from the Openbank section of Santander’; Fundamental profit here fell to 290 million Euro’; This was hit by a €207 million response to potential engine financing complaints at ’ in the United Kingdom and the end of tax incentives for electric vehicles at ’ in the United States.
If the bank excludes this provision, the pre-tax profit %He said it would go up by 15.
UBS Increases Profit by 80%
Influenced by UBS, asset management and commercial power, %It reported an increase of 80 to $3.04 billion.
Revenue increased to CHF 13.6 billion’ye (EUR 14.7 billion), while profit before basic tax %It's up 54.
The bank confirmed its $3 billion buyback program, which is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter, and said that the CET1 rate %He reported 13.8.
The economic impact of the conflict in ’, Iran, will continue to be manageable if it is short-lived, but the duration is a significant risk, the executives said.
The European Central Bank warned that the war triggered a downward revision in its outlook for short-term growth, as energy price shocks and rising uncertainty would likely negatively affect purchasing power and business confidence, while also increasing financing costs for banks and firms through bond spreads and stock prices.
For now, bank earnings seem resilient, but as the macro chart evolves, analysts are closely monitoring credit quality.
TotalEnergies’ net income %Increased by 51
TotalEnergies, a French multinational oil company, has announced that its net income will be supported by strong oil and gas prices and tightening global markets. %It reported an increase of 51 to $5.8 billion (4.95 billion euros).
Quilter Cheviot’tan Maurizio Carulli, “TotalEnergies, published a strong first quarter results above expectations” said and added: “Strong organic production growth is helping to offset losses due to ongoing conflict in the Middle East’.”
Production on an annual basis approx. %4 is increased; A similar growth is expected in the second quarter, excluding disruptions.
The company is at the peak of expectations for the second quarter of 2026’ %It announced a 5.9-dividend increase and a $1.5 billion share buyback.
Gas markets remain tight as oil prices expect to remain high in the second quarter due to a delay in production restarts; European prices stand at $14-15 per MMBtu due to low storage and LNG competition between Europe and Asia.
German automotive outlier value
At the same time, the German car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz also announced its first quarter profit. Automobile manufacturer in operating profit in the first quarter ’ in a sharp decline of 1.9 billion Euro’ya, while in revenue %It reported a decline of 4.9 to 31.6 billion Euro’.
Adjusted operating margin in the automobile division from the previous year %from 7.3’ten %4.1’e has declined and net profit is also declined to 1.43 billion Euro’.
German automaker in sales in China’, where lower-cost local competitors such as BYD and Nio are moving towards the premium segment %In addition to a collapse of 27’, the US is being squeezed in many ways, including ’'s tariff pressure and the costly transition to electric vehicles.
Despite the decline, the figures exceeded analysts' expectations of operating profit of €1.6 billion, with shares trading in pre-market transactions %It increased by 2.2 percent.
CFO Harald Wilhelm said that the company's all-year group EBIT ’ is on track to become ’, significantly above last year's result of €5.8 billion “, pointing to healthy order books and 40 new models planned between 2025 and 2027; These include the all-electric CLA sedan and the revamped S-Class series.
Mercedes also marked the conflict in the Middle East’ as a risk to consumer confidence; This is a widely shared concern in the European industry.
