Compass Investments

– German bank Commerzbank, a partly state-owned bank with a $20 billion fortune, has received takeover interest from leading Italian lender Unicredit.

The partnership between Commerzbank and Deutsche Börse could be an important step toward promoting cryptocurrencies in the European banking sector.

In particular, Deutsche Börse’s subsidiary Crypto Finance will work with Commerzbank to offer bitcoin and ether transactions for German corporate clients.

Unicredit has not yet made a formal offer to acquire Commerzbank. However, it has applied for regulatory approval to increase its stake to about 21% and 29.9% .

the German government still owns 12% of Commerzbank’s shares and has stated its opposition to the takeover. Some members of Commerzbank’s board of directors have also voiced opposition.

In November 2023, Commerzbank became the first German universal bank to be licensed to hold cryptocurrency under the German Banking Act.

Crypto Finance, founded in 2017, has four licenses from Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, known as BaFin.

A possible acquisition, merger, takeover or other transaction of Commerzbank by Unicredit could help lead the notoriously imperfect European bloc toward a banking union.

In particular, acquisitions, if they materialize, could alleviate Germany’s “sovereign banking loop” by creating a cross-border banking structure that is less tied to a single country’s economy. Despite the existence of a single currency, cross-border bank mergers are extremely rare in Europe.