Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank have discontinued discussions in relation to combining their businesses.
The two banks said that “after careful analysis it became apparent that such a combination would not be in the interests of either bank’s shareholders or other stakeholders”.
Christian Sewing, CEO of Deutsche Bank, commented: “After thorough analysis, we have concluded that this transaction would not have created sufficient benefits to offset the additional execution risks, restructuring costs and capital requirements associated with such a large-scale integration.”
Martin Zielke, CEO of Commerzbank, explained “It made sense to evaluate this option for domestic consolidation in Germany. However, we were always clear: we needed to be convinced that any potential combination would generate higher and more sustainable returns for shareholders and allow us to enhance our value proposition to clients.”
He added: “I would like to thank Christian Sewing and everyone involved for the constructive discussions over the past few weeks. We will continue our strategy, grow together with our clients and invest in our future.”
