Commerzbank Still Not Learning Its Lesson

Germany’s second-largest bank reaffirmed its streamlining plan for the coming three years, which is to reduce expenses by €1.4 billion by 2024. This will be done by shutting down 400 of the 790 offices in Germany, and by the elimination of 10,000 jobs (one-third of the total workforce). It will not bring Commerzbank out of its crisis, which is systemic: only an in-depth restructuring of banking operations will work; cuts in expenses will not work.