(Bloomberg) -- Clients of Germany’s Commerzbank AG are looking increasingly to its main domestic competitor to secure funding amid the uncertainty over a potential takeover by UniCredit SpA, a senior executive at Deutsche Bank AG said.
In individual cases, Deutsche Bank has already won business with Commerzbank clients and it is separately engaged in numerous dialogues which should eventually lead to new client relationships, Corporate Bank Germany & Europe head Jan-Philipp Gillmann said at an event in Frankfurt.
“Customers are calling us,” he said. “Clients are looking at the situation very pro-actively, because in the end it is about securing liquidity.”
Similarly, Deutsche Bank has over the last one and a half years benefited from the merger of UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse, Gillmann said. “We have gained an extremely large number of customers in Switzerland,” he said.
While UniCredit built a stake in Commerzbank in September and chief executive Andrea Orcel has been vocal about a considering a full-blown merger with the German rival, he earlier this week toned down his language, after announcing a deal to buy Italian lender Banco BPM.
“Commerzbank is going to remain an important investment,” Orcel said on Monday.
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