display
When the former Juso chairman Jörg Kukies was still one of two heads of the investment bank Goldman Sachs in Germany, he was quoted repeatedly in interviews with astonishing forecasts.
In March 2017, for example, he announced that European banks had significantly better prospects than their low share prices suggested.
"It is hard to imagine that they would be rated so low over the long term," said Kukies at the time.
Almost exactly a year later, the investment banker moved, completely surprising to almost all observers, as State Secretary to the side of Olaf Scholz in the Berlin Ministry of Finance.
In Frankfurt, the representatives of the industry now hoped that the relationship with the civil servants in Berlin's Wilhelmstrasse could be redesigned.
After all, since the banks dumped billions in the 2008 financial crisis, they have, at best, met with disinterest.
As expected, Kukies has since been much more committed to the industry than his predecessors - albeit with an unexpected outcome.
Because his balance sheet has so far been modest in many important points.
His ambitious plans to deepen the European banking union have disappeared deep down in the digital filing piles.
display
A parliamentary committee of inquiry is currently examining his possible role in the bankruptcy of the payment service provider Wirecard, which was delayed by the inactivity of the financial supervisor under his authority.
And at Commerzbank, at least as of today, the Berlin interventions have mainly wreaked havoc.
Turbulence in the supervisory board - again
It almost seems as if Kukies wants to prove his thesis of the undervalued banks at the money house in which the state got involved in the financial crisis of 2008.
If one takes the results of his work as an indication of the investments that the federal government made in Lufthansa, TUI and other companies in the Corona crisis, these attempts do not bode well.
There was just another turbulence in the Supervisory Board of Commerzbank.
Within a few weeks, half of the representatives of the capital side quit the service.
First, the chairman of the supervisory board, Hans-Jörg Vetter, who had only been in office for a few months, had to give up his post due to illness.
Then the Berlin governors in particular are said to have urged Andreas Schmitz, the former head of Germany of the British HSBC, who was traded as a possible successor, to withdraw.
display
The reason for this is said to have been investigations into fiscally questionable share deals (“cum-ex”).
Allegedly, SPD Chancellor candidate Scholz feared that the issue could damage his image.
Following Schmitz's dismantling, three other members of the supervisory board left the committee.
The bank has meanwhile presented replacements.
Much more serious than this change in personnel is the tense business situation of the financial institution.
For 2020, Commerzbank reported a loss of almost three billion euros due to high depreciation and increased provisions for loans at risk of default.
In the coming years, the CEO Manfred Knof, who has only been in office since January, wants to cut costs above all.
In the coming year, the number of branches is expected to drop from currently around 800 to 450.
And in 2024, 32,000 of the last 39,000 jobs will be left.
Ten years ago the bank had almost 60,000 employees.
Participation of the federal government guaranteed executive board jobs
Since the federal government got on board at the end of 2008, employees have been waiting in vain for things to turn permanently for the better.
After the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, Berlin had stabilized Germany's second largest bank at the time with around 18 billion euros.
Most of the aid flowed back a few years later.
display
However, since the bank's shares were worth significantly less than when they entered the company, the federal government refrained from selling its remaining shares.
From then on he was largely passive.
The senior officials in Berlin always took notice when a foreign competitor expressed interest - and sent him home without having achieved anything.
The situation had its positive side for the bank's management.
The participation of the federal government acted as protection against takeover attempts - and thus guaranteed their jobs.
The managers could therefore only have a limited interest in a higher share price.
In the years that followed, they set themselves moderate goals, some of which they achieved at best.
The federal government accepted this largely without complaint.
After all, the business model based on generous lending to companies and private customers was also entirely in the interests of the government.
A clear vote of no confidence
The attitude only changed when Kukies took over - and it did so spectacularly.
After there had already been speculation, WELT announced in March 2019 that Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank would start negotiations on a merger.
Although the Ministry of Finance officially denied having initiated the talks, Scholz and Kukies are considered to be the actual originators of the idea of a “national champion” in the German banking sector.
The reactions of investors, media and bank employees to the rapprochement were almost unanimously disastrous.
After a few weeks, the banks ended the talks again - and were left alone.
This put pressure above all on Commerzbank, whose boss at the time, Martin Zielke, had positioned himself as a friend of the merger.
Over the coming months, he worked with his leadership team on a new strategy for living alone.
When he presented this publicly in autumn 2019, the horror of the shareholders was great.
Because the goals were noticeably ambitious, even by Commerzbank standards.
Apparently Kukies saw it that way too.
Just a few days after Zielke's presentation, it became known that the finance agency through which the federal government holds its shares in the money house had commissioned management consultancy Boston Consulting to review the bank's business model.
Those involved saw a clear vote of no confidence in it even then.
Deutsche Bank is doing better
display
When the major shareholder Cerberus made his displeasure with Zielke and his management team clear, the manager went to Berlin.
But the hoped-for backing from the Ministry of Finance did not materialize.
The institute then fell into a leadership chaos.
At the same time, the supervisory board and executive board chairman resigned - neither Kukies nor Cerberus had intended that.
The mess was perfect.
It was not until the new chairman of the supervisory board, Hans-Jörg Vetter, that calm returned to the group and with it the chance of a new beginning.
The blow was all the more severe for the money house when it had to withdraw because of his illness.
CEO Knof, who has been in office for three months, now has to implement the plans agreed with Vetter with an almost completely new supervisory board.
In contrast, Knof's former employer, Deutsche Bank, is much more stable.
Here, CEO Christian Sewing's contract has just been extended to April 2026.