FRANKFURT(dpa-AFX) - The turnaround in interest rates has given Commerzbank a surprisingly strong jump in profits at the start of the year. With a surplus of 580 million euros, the group earned almost twice as much in the first quarter as a year earlier, it announced in Frankfurt on Wednesday. That's around 100 million euros more than experts had expected on average. "We started the year with a lot of momentum, seamlessly continuing the strong performance of the previous year," CEO Manfred Knof summed up. "We are fully on track to achieve our targets for 2023, including a payout ratio of 50 percent."

After a net profit of 1.4 billion euros for 2022 as a whole, Knof is still targeting a significantly higher consolidated profit for this year. Commerzbank expects additional tailwind from its return to Germany's premier stock market league: the share has been listed on the Dax again since February 27.

In the first quarter, Commerzbank benefited from higher interest rates. Net interest income rose by almost 39 percent year-on-year to around 1.95 billion euros. At the same time, risk provisioning for possible loan defaults of 68 million euros was significantly below the previous year's figure of 464 million euros./ben/stw/DP/stw