The largest German and Swiss banks were among the least efficient in Europe in the third quarter, Data from S&P Global Market Intelligence shows this.

Out of a sample of 37 European banks, Deutsche Bank AG was the least efficient, measured by its cost-income ratio at 86.01%, an improvement of 45 basis points from 86.46% last year. The German lender said transformation costs for the period amounted to € 583 million, up from € 104 million the year before. These charges included a contract settlement and software write-downs of approximately € 450 million following a migration to the cloud. Deutsche is targeting a cost-to-income ratio of 70% by 2022.

Credit Suisse Group AG came in second, with a cost-to-income ratio of 84.59% compared to 79.52% a year ago. The Swiss lender suffered credit losses of CHF 144 million following the double scandal related to its exposure to Archegos Capital and Greensill Capital (UK) Ltd. scandal.

Commerzbank AG, another German bank, came third on the list, with its ratio declining on an annual basis to 79.16% from 85.58%. CFO Bettina Orlopp said the bank was able to cut costs by around 5% year on year despite additional investments in digitization, IT, infrastructure and regulatory functions.

UBS Group AG was fourth, with its cost-to-income ratio reaching 75.96% from 74.14% a year earlier, despite a 1% drop in operating expenses in the third quarter to $ 6.26 billion .

Russian and Nordic banks were among the most efficient in the third quarter in terms of cost-income. Sberbank of Russia and VTB Bank PJSC had the best ratios at 32.33% and 36.44%, respectively. Both also generate income from non-banking activities such as e-commerce and streaming services.

DNB Bank ASA’s cost / income ratio improved by 419 basis points to 40.02%. It was closely followed by Nykredit A / S, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ) and Swedbank AB (publ).