Tokachi Group - Germany’s second largest lender, Commerzbank, says that a marked increase in bottom-line earning will likely prompt its management to propose reinstatement of a dividend to shareholders.

The bank attributed the jump in profits to its renewed focus on retail banking drive and reported revenues of €9.762 billion, an 11% jump year-on-year. The bank’s CEO, Martin Blessing said, "2015 has shown that our strategy is right and that the implementation has been successful,"

The profit marks a long overdue return to the billion-euro level after 5 years posting profits below that psychological figure.

“This is great news after some challenging trading conditions for Commerzbank in recent years,” explained a Tokachi Group banking strategist.

The bank was beset by problems after being bailed out by the German government during the global financial crisis in 2008. It cut thousands of jobs in 2013 as part of a restructuring drive and scaled down the size of its debt trading operations and selling off billions of euro in commercial real estate holdings elsewhere in Europe.

“The best news is that the management apparently plan to reintroduce the dividend. It may only be €0.20 per share for 2015 but it will be the first since 2007 and shareholders will be pleased,” said the Tokachi Group analyst.

Commerzbank’s stock jumped 15% on the news in trading despite broad-based declines on European bourses spooked by investor worries over the global economy, oil prices and the strength of the European banking system in general.