Commerzbank Plans to Dismantle Its Investment Bank, FAZ Reports

(Bloomberg) -- Commerzbank AG plans to dismantle its investment bank and merge parts of the division with its corporate unit to reduce costs, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported, citing people familiar with the plans that it didn’t identify.

The bank could save several million euros by integrating the two units’ trading platforms, and capital-markets activities that don’t serve the needs of the multinational companies that the new unit plans to focus on may be closed, the German newspaper reported after markets closed Friday. Commerzbank declined to comment on the report.

Chief Executive Officer Martin Zielke, who took over in May, is due to present his new strategy to the German lender’s supervisory board later this month. Zielke is stepping up measures to reverse a decline in revenue and profit that forced him to abandon Commerzbank’s earnings goals in August.

Handelsblatt reported earlier Friday that the CEO was considering significant job cuts at the bank.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jan-Henrik Förster in Zurich at jforster20@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Elisa Martinuzzi at emartinuzzi@bloomberg.net, Keith Campbell