German lender Deutsche Bank posted a strong increase in third-quarter net profit Thursday, beating analyst expectations despite a significant drop in investment bank revenue. Here are the key third-quarter metrics: Net income: 649 million euros ($768 million) vs. 281 million euros expected, according to Thomson Reuters

Revenue: 6.8 billion euros vs. 6.84 billion euros expected, according to Thomson Reuters Germany's flagship bank said further cost reductions had helped profits to more than double in the three months through to September. For the same period last year net profit came in at 278 million euros.



Meantime, revenues at the bank slipped 9.6 percent to 6.8 billion euros in the third quarter. The decline in revenues had been widely expected as low market volatility, depressed trading volumes and a stubbornly low-interest rate environment have hit banks globally in recent months.



"While the revenue environment remained challenging, we have made significant progress on our initiatives," Chief Executive John Cryan said in a statement.

Statues stand outside a Deutsche Bank AG branch in Frankfurt, Germany. Krisztian Bocsi | Bloomberg | Getty Images

'Weaker than the peer group'

Deutsche Bank's third-quarter revenues lagged behind its U.S. peers. The major U.S. investment banks' bond trading revenues dipped 22 percent on average, Reuters reported, when compared to the same period in 2016. Revenues in Deutsche Bank's bond trading division slumped 36 percent in the third quarter due to reduced market volatility and decreased client activity.



Piers Brown, a London-based analyst at Macquarie Research said Thursday that a "poor" performance in Deutsche Bank's corporate and institutional division was again "significantly weaker than the peer group."



Shares of the bank were more than 2 percent lower during early morning deals on Thursday.