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Frankfurt / Main (dpa) - Commerzbank has to look for a new head of the supervisory board again after a few months.

The incumbent chairman Hans-Jörg Vetter is resigning his mandate in the supervisory body immediately for health reasons, the money house announced on Tuesday in Frankfurt.

Until a successor is elected, Vetter's deputy and group works council chief Uwe Tschäge will lead the supervisory board, according to a brief statement.

The institute did not provide any further information.

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Vetter, formerly head of the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, only moved to the top of the Commerzbank supervisory board in August 2020.

His predecessor Stefan Schmittmann and the then CEO Martin Zielke had surprisingly announced their resignations after harsh criticism from major shareholder Cerberus.

This plunged the MDax group into a management crisis, and the urgently needed restructuring of the group was delayed.

The new CEO Manfred Knof has been running Commerzbank since January 1st.

The 68-year-old cousin, together with the former German banker Knof, was supposed to push ahead with the restructuring of the low-yield financial house.

During his time at the helm of Landesbank Baden-Württemberg and Bankgesellschaft Berlin, Vetter gained a reputation for restructuring.

The manager was considered the preferred candidate of the federal government, the largest single shareholder of Commerzbank since the rescue in the global financial crisis in 2009. With the decision, the federal government prevailed against financial investor Cerberus, who had great reservations about Vetter.

In February, CEO Knof had already pushed the pace with the restructuring.

So Commerzbank decided on a tough austerity course, with which the costs of around 6.7 billion euros in the past year should fall by 1.4 billion euros by 2024.

After losing billions in 2020, the Frankfurt institute is aiming for black numbers again this year, at least in day-to-day business.

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According to the new strategy, the number of full-time positions in the group is to fall from almost 40,000 to 32,000 by the end of 2024.

The bank wants to avoid redundancies for operational reasons as much as possible, but did not want to rule them out entirely.

The branch network will also be almost halved to 450 locations.

Last year Commerzbank posted a loss of 2.9 billion euros - the highest deficit since the financial crisis in 2009 with a loss of more than 4.5 billion euros at the time.

The management did not dare to make a prognosis as to when the money house will again achieve a net profit.

Now, in the middle of the renovation, the bank has to look for a successor for Vetter.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210316-99-845185 / 2

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CV Hans-Jörg Vetter

CV Uwe Tschäge

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