FRANKFURT, Germany, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- German banking giant Deutsche Bank's fourth-quarter profits more than tripled, giving it a record pre-tax profit of $7.7 billion in 2005.
Net profits rose by 58 percent to $4.6 billion, the firm said Thursday.
Deutsche Bank published the excellent numbers just a day after it extended the contract of its Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann until 2010.
"We will have no problem growing even more," Ackermann told German news channel n-tv.
Swiss-born Ackerman's job became endangered after he became embroiled in a scandal over payouts to former top executives he approved when he was a board member at German telecommunications firm Mannesmann. He has also come under fire for slashing thousands of jobs at a time when Deutsche Bank was turning in record profits.
"Deutsche Bank is so well-equipped ... it won't have any problems (without me)," he told n-tv.
Analysts still say it is possible Ackermann may have to resign if the Mannesmann affair returns an unfavorable outcome.
A regional court had already acquitted him in the affair, but a federal institution overturned that acquittal to haul him back into court.