Other operating income declined by €235 million to €2,586 million, due mainly to the one-time factors contained in the prior-year figure: €276 million from exercising the exchangeable bond on Deutsche Postbank shares, net income of €89 million from the positive outcome of the arbitration proceedings against Deutsche Telekom and €10 million from the disposal of McPaper AG. A further €64 million from the sale of shares in the Czech building society Modra Pyramida were compensated for by various smaller non-recurring effects at Postbank. In the year under review, we recorded income of €59 million from the sale of Vfw AG and net non-recurring effects of €–25 million at Postbank. These mainly comprise the gain on the disposal of Postbank’s insurance equity investments of €391 million, provisioning in the investment portfolio in the amount of €183 million and impairment losses of €112 million in connection with the sub-prime crisis, as well as extraordinary effects in administrative expenses and non-recurring effects in net interest income.

Materials expense and expenses from banking transactions rose in line with the increase in revenue from €34,349 million to €36,875 million in total. Materials expense rose to €30,488 million (previous year: €28,641 million), expenses from banking transactions rose to €6,387 million (previous year: €5,708 million). Materials expense also includes higher expenses for the NHS contract.

Staff costs dropped slightly by 0.8% to €18,471 million, due in part to a reduction in pension expenses.

Depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses increased by €586 million to €2,357 million (previous year: €1,771 million), primarily due to impairment losses recorded on non-current assets in the Americas EXPRESS business as a result of impairment testing.

At €5,193 million, other operating expenses were up €435 million on the previous year. The increase stems from a series of smaller factors.