Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank heed Chancellor Angel Merkel's advice to explore a merger to avoid being swallowed up by a foreign competitor
Banners of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank in Frankfurt, Germany. Picture: REUTERS/KAJ PFAFFENBACH
The lenders, both grappling with painful restructuring after years of falling profits, have long been the subject of merger rumours. A week ago finance minister Olaf Scholz sent up shares in both banks by confirming that “there are talks about the situation as it is” between the lenders, with the government a “fair companion” to the discussions.
Deutsche is also reorganising, and only returned to the black last year after many years spent fighting the financial and legal fallout of its breakneck pre-crisis expansion. On the jobs front “at least 10,000 further jobs would be in grave danger” on top of thousands already slated to go as both lenders press through far-reaching restructuring projects, Verdi estimated. Nonetheless, marrying off Germany’s two biggest private banks would fit with Berlin's new-found fervour to build up such titans.
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