Deutsche Bank and UBS post massive profit jumps as European bank stocks hit post-crisis highs

Deutsche Bank just posted a record quarter. UBS grew core profits by 47%. And the index tracking European bank stocks is sitting at levels not seen since before Lehman Brothers became a cautionary tale. The Q2 2026 earnings season for European lenders is shaping up as a blockbuster, with the two banking giants delivering numbers that would make most DeFi protocols jealous in terms of sheer dollar (and euro) volume. The numbers behind the rally Deutsche Bank reported a post-tax profit of €1.9 billion for Q2 2026, a record for the Frankfurt-based lender. Net revenues came in at €8.5 billion, up 9% year-over-year, while pre-tax profit hit €2.7 billion, an 11% increase from the same period last year. UBS, meanwhile, posted a pre-tax profit of $3.6 billion, with underlying pre-tax profit reaching $3.9 billion. That underlying figure represents a 47% year-on-year jump. Net profit landed at $2.8 billion. To put that UBS growth rate in perspective: a 47% annual increase in core profitability is the kind of number that gets whispered reverently in earnings calls. For a bank that spent the better part of 2023 and 2024 digesting the forced acquisition of Credit Suisse, it signals that the int...