Overview

• Finance Minister Lars Kingbeil formally asked UniCredit to abandon its push for a majority stake in Commerzbank, citing the bank’s systemic role and Germany’s commitment to its independence
• UniCredit converted part of its derivatives to secure a 20% stake in Commerzbank and plans to convert an additional 9% into shares at a later date under ECB and supervisory approvals
• EuroEuropean Commission has reminded member states that once a merger is cleared at the EU level on prudential and competition grounds, no government can lawfully block it on purely economic grounds
• Rome has made its sign-off on UniCredit’s proposed Banco BPM acquisition conditional on the bank’s complete exit from Russia, effectively pausing the transaction until that requirement is met
• The interventions by Berlin and Rome underscore the friction between national sovereignty, geopolitical concerns and the EU’s efforts to advance its banking union through cross-border consolidation