Germany’s Commerzbank on Thursday said that its net loss deepened to $3.3 billion in the fourth quarter, as the lender undergoes a major restructuring and deals with the fall-out of the coronavirus outbreak.
The bank said it would swiftly implement plans to cut 10,000 jobs and close hundreds of branches, and that it would strive for an operating profit in 2021.
The net loss of 2.70 billion euros ($3.27 billion) euros in the quarter compares with a loss of 97 million euros a year earlier. The bank had already disclosed that it lost nearly 2.9 billion euros for the full year.
The figures come a week after Commerzbank Chief Executive Manfred Knof finalized plans for the radical overhaul and a month after he took the reins of Germany’s No. 2 bank.
“We want to be sustainably profitable and shape our own destiny as an independent force in the German banking market,” Knof said.
($1 = 0.8246 euros)
Main Photo A view on the Commerzbank office tower seen behind a Commerzbank signage at its local branch in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 09 February 2021. Commerzbank will release their preliminary business figures for the fourth quarter Q4 and the full year 2020 on 11 February 2021. EPA-EFE/RONALD WITTEK
