German bank to cut more than 450 jobs

At a staff meeting last week, Commerzbank’s works council representatives announced that the bank is targeting 350 job cuts at its finance department in Frankfurt by 2017 and 100 at sites in Duisburg and Berlin.

“There have been signals from the board that there is more to come and that all departments of the group could be hit in the short term,” a source said.

Commerzbank, which is in the midst of a radical cost-cutting programme – its second in four years – had announced plans to shed 5,200 of its roughly 45,000 staff.

It has struggled to overhaul itself since receiving an 18 billion euro (£14.2bn) bailout following a disastrous merger with Dresdner Bank in 2009.

Other banks in Germany have also been trimming their workforce as they restructure their businesses in the wake of the financial crisis.

To fill the gap left by the departure of the 450 employees, Commerzbank plans to shift some accounting work to internal low-cost firms controlled by Commerzbank such as Poland-based Ceri and Eastern Germany-based ComTS sites, the sources added.