Frankfurt - In spite of the market turmoil unleashed by the world financial crisis, Deutsche Bank AG reported Thursday a third-quarter profit helped along by new accounting rules.

Germany's biggest bank said net profit in the three months to the end of September came in at 414 million euros (546.3 million dollars). This compares with a 1.63-billion-euro profit in the same period last year.

"After a period of exceptional market turbulence, the outlook for our business remains challenging," Deutsche chief Josef Ackermann said releasing the results.

"We will balance our dividend policy with our commitment to conserving capital strength in a highly uncertain environment," he said.

The Deutsche Bank chief went on to say there had been a "considerable intensification of the credit crisis in September" adding that conditions on the equity and credit markets remained "extremely difficult."

Compared with several of its peers, Deutsche Bank has escaped relatively unscathed from the global credit crunch and the financial market crisis with the Frankfurt-based bank saying it would not be forced to turn to a new German government fund aimed at helping banks through the current upheaval.

However, new accounting rules meant that Deutsche was able to reduce its writedowns during the latest quarter to 1.2 billion euros.

Moreover, Deutsche's key investment-banking operations posted a pre-tax loss of 789 million euros during the quarter under review.

Pre-tax profit from the group's consumer banking, asset management and global transaction business also slumped from 832 million euros last year to 449 million euros in the latest quarter.

In September Deutsche acquired a stake in Germany's leading consumer bank Deutsche Postbank AG, which Ackermann said "underlined our determination to grow our core business."

Deutsche's third-quarter revenue stood at 4.4 billion euros with its group pre-tax earnings dropping to 93 million euros from 1.4 billion euros last year. (dpa)