The second largest private bank in Germany, Commerzbank, as part of the business restructuring, intends to close its branches in Luxembourg, Barcelona and Hong Kong, as well as sell its Hungarian branch. About this on Sunday writes Handelsblatt referring to a bank message circulated among employees.
Commerzbank ranks fourth in Germany and twenty-third in Europe in terms of assets.
According to the German edition, Commerzbank board members Roland Boehm and Nikolaus Gisbert named 15 places where it is planned to close its branches, representative offices or branches. In particular, the bank's branches in Barcelona, Bratislava and Brussels will be closed, as well as representative offices in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Serbia and Venezuela.
The bank intends to “gradually make changes to the international network until 2024,” explained Boehm, who is in charge of business for international corporate clients. “We are very careful here and we do it in close cooperation with local regulators.”
The restructuring plan was presented by Manfred Knof, CEO of Commerzbank, who took office in September. The restructuring envisages the dismissal of about a third of all employees (10,000 people) and the closure of almost half of all bank branches in Germany (340 branches) by 2024. According to Knof, this will allow the bank to cut costs by 1.4 billion euros during this period.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, Commerzbank's net loss increased to 3.3 billion euros amid pandemic restrictions.
