Commerzbank Ag history

In 1873, the subsidiary London and Hanseatic Bank was founded, which was active until the First World War.

Commerzbank took a step up in 1892, when it opened a branch office in Berlin.

In Germany, Commerzbank was initially active in Hamburg until 1897 branches were built in Berlin and Frankfurt am Main.

All of Germany's major banks were based there, and Commerzbank completed its bid to join their ranks in 1904 when it acquired Berliner Bank.

Bank Mergers Between the Wars: 1918-45

In 1920, Commerzbank AG merged with Mitteldeutsche Privatbank AG in Magdeburg to form Commerz- und Privat-Bank AG, thereby gaining a dense branch network in the provinces of Saxony and Thuringia.

1928: Commerzbank joins with Chase National Bank to form General Mortgage and Credit Corporation.

In 1929 it acquired another Berlin bank, Mittledeutsche Creditbank.

In 1931, during the Great Depression Commerzbank, ran into difficulties.

The Reich government under Chancellor Heinrich Brüning decided in February 1932 to merge Commerzbank with Barmer Bankverein, which had a dense branch network in northern and western Germany.

In 1940, the name Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, which had already been used in public, was adopted and the logo changed to "C" with side wings.

In 1944, their assets totalled over 28 billion marks, more than all of Germany's other banks combined.

Reorganization and Global Expansion: 1945-80

In 1952, the surviving Grossbanken--Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank--were each dissolved into three smaller banks.

With the division of Europe after World War II, three regional banks were united in 1958 to form Commerzbank AG, which had its headquarters in Düsseldorf.

The survival of Germany's universal banking system also helped; as one German bank official told Time in 1962, an American equivalent of a Big Three bank would be like "a combination of Chase Manhattan, First Boston and Merrill Lynch."

1967: Commerzbank joins with Irving Trust Company, First National Bank of Chicago, Westminster Bank, and Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation to form the International Commercial Bank in London.

In 1970, it entered into a semi-merger with Credit Lyonnais, France's second-largest bank, and Italy's Banco di Roma in order to both counter increased competition from large American banks and meet the needs of European companies that had expanded their business overseas.

In 1980, it sold a 32 percent stake in Kaufhof, Germany's second largest retailer, to the Union Bank of Switzerland and Metro-Verwegensverwaltung, a German-owned Swiss supermarket concern.

He was able to woo Walter Seipp, vice-chairman of Westdeutsche Landesbank, who assumed the chairmanship in 1981.

Under his direction, Commerzbank increased its loan loss provisions in 1982 when faced with the possible default of $250 million worth of loans to Poland.

In 1984, it continued to divest its nonbank holdings by selling its stake in the Kempinski luxury hotel group to Saudi Arabian interests.

In 1986, responding to a new trend among West German companies toward raising money through the securities markets rather than by borrowing from banks, it raised $200 million in fresh capital through a floating-rate note issue.

In 1988, Commerzbank sold its stake in Deutsche Wagnisfinanzierung to Deutsche Bank.

The reunification of Germany in 1989, in reestablishing a single German currency and opening up a substantial unexploited market in the east, provided Commerzbank with the opportunity to expand its domestic banking network significantly.

In October 1990 the bank earmarked DM 500 million for the creation of 120 new branches in the former East Germany over a three-year period, with the aim of seizing a share of the new market larger than that of its competitors.

When the European economy became fully integrated at the end of 1992, it presented West German financial institutions with a whole new set of challenges.

In 2000 they began pushing for Commerzbank to enter into merger talks with another European Bank, preferably one outside of Germany.

In September 2016, Commerzbank planned to cut 9,600 jobs or about a fifth of its workforce in 4 years.