Commerzbank's online-only bank is a hefty beast, but growing faster than ever

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Sale offers relief from share price dip.

Austria

After a year in the recovery ward, 2017 results show some banks are healing. The most serious illness, negative rates, is stubbornly resistant however. The danger remains that banks may not recover before another disease –financial or technological – strikes.

HSBC rises to the top of trade finance.

Penelope Smith, Director, Head of non-German Schuldschein Origination, DCM Loans at Commerzbank, considered the role of this unique private placement instrument in international investors’ portfolios.

With all the factors that can affect the success and failure of an enterprise, financing SME clients can be a risky business – and one that many banks do not feel is worth the effort for the relatively small volumes of financing activity involved.

Austria’s best bank notched its best result to date last year on the back of a recovery in its emerging Europe operations. But while the group’s international network tended to grab the headlines, the domestic business also put in another strong showing.

The importance of emerging markets in the world economy has grown steadily but managing EM currency risk can be a nightmare for the unwary corporate treasurer. By 2014, emerging market economies already accounted for 36% of world GDP and 27% of world trade, yet in the period between 2010 and 2015 there were eight large depreciations of emerging market currencies, according to the International Monetary Fund. Managing the company’s financial interests in these challenging markets has become a top priority for treasurers. Which factors should treasurers look at?

Any bank promoting its new strategy as ‘version 4.0’ has clearly suffered a chequered recent history. Now Commerzbank’s management is pinning its hopes on a renewed focus on corporate clients, especially in Germany. It sounds simple, but insiders admit it will require a cultural, as well as digital, transformation.

In a reversal of their traditional roles, Deutsche Bank’s new focus on German business and a simplified structure bears more than a passing resemblance to domestic rival Commerzbank’s re-boot six months ago.

Exits structured products businesses; splits Mittelstandsbank between corporates and retail division.

Pension plans of many European companies are in crisis. Longer life expectancy entails paying out more in defined benefits, while volatile equity markets and low-yielding bonds have cut deep into investment returns. At the same time, the historically low interest rates and credit spreads result in higher discounted values of pension liabilities. Satu Jaatinen, Global Head of Corporate and Investor Solutions at Commerzbank, examines the strategic options for safeguarding pensions at risk.

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From the debris of multiple crises, Martin Blessing has overseen a quiet return to stability and moderate success at Commerzbank, just as the entire European banking sector hit the skids once more. In his last major interview before stepping down as CEO, Blessing looks back on his tumultuous eight-year tenure.

CEOs are expected by shareholders and other stakeholders to guide their companies through today’s shifting risk landscape and deliver on financial objectives. Here's how.

It won’t have escaped your notice but there are further regulatory changes coming down the track. Hard on the heels of European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), the second iteration of Europe’s Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation are under way.

Commerzbank explains how SunTec's platforms helped to consolidate its pricing data, while reducing costs and improving response times to client requests.

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Rather than relying exclusively on in-house platforms, or buying in third-party resources, banks are benefiting from nurturing the next generation of talent to experiment with emerging fintech solutions. Citi, Commerzbank and DBS reveal their incubator strategies.

Government IPOs Deutsche Pfandbriefbank; Commerzbank sells €2.9 billion loan portfolio.

Commerzbank's senior transaction bankers explain the institution's focus on mid-sized corporates amid intensifying technological challenges and opportunities.

Results index

The sale of a jumbo pool of legacy Spanish real-estate loans written by Commerzbank unit Eurohypo is just the latest evidence that the long-awaited deleveraging of Europe’s banks is set to accelerate. But as demand and supply in this part of the market finally align, the careful timing of sales will be crucial to their success.

€3bln for DCM, €3bln for FICC; UniCredit, Commerzbank and Crédit Agricole to benefit as funding shifts to bonds

Commerzbank issued a five-year €500 million covered bond backed by SME loans at the end of February – a landmark deal for the market given the atypical structure.

Japanese bond yields are being kept low because domestic interest remains high, but how much longer will Japanese investors have to pay for the growing sovereign debt burden? Commerzbank comes to a scary conclusion.