Deutsche Bank AG is expecting its revenues for 2019 to be "slightly higher" than those recorded in 2018 through a combination of investments in key areas and liquidity and balance sheet optimization.

The Frankfurt, Germany-based banking giant noted in its annual financial statement that its outlook reflects expectations that 2019 will see solid macroeconomic growth and no material distortions in foreign exchange rates. Though its CRR/CRD 4 common equity Tier 1 ratio is projected to be above 13% throughout the year, it would still be negatively affected by pending supervisory assessments.

This comes after the group reported in February its first annual profit since 2014. The group reported full-year 2018 net income attributable to shareholders of €267 million, compared with losses of €751 million in 2017.

Deutsche Bank is in talks with local peer Commerzbank AG over a potential merger, which could create an entity with an equity market value of more than €25.6 billion. However, the potential tie-up has been criticized because of the number of job cuts it would entail, with trade union Verdi estimating the potential job cuts at about 10,000 in the short term and 30,000 in the long term.