FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Deutsche Bank bounced back to profit in the third quarter, as it released reserves set aside for investor lawsuits over its Postbank division and as its global investment bank fired on all cylinders.

A 15-quarter profit streak at Germany's largest lender was interrupted in the second quarter after it made a large provision for the lawsuits, pushing the bank into loss. But Deutsche has since settled some of the suits and released 440 million euros ($475 million) of those provisions in the third quarter, helping to lift profit.

Deutsche Bank also said it was applying for a share buyback, a move that was on hold because of its issues with Postbank.

The bank's net profit attributable to shareholders was 1.461 billion euros ($1.58 billion) in the quarter, figures showed on Wednesday. That compares with a profit of 1.031 billion euros a year earlier and a loss of 143 million euros in the second quarter.

It was slightly better than analyst expectations for a profit of around 1.4 billion euros.

($1 = 0.9257 euros)