 Commerzbank is licking its wounds |
Commerzbank, Germany's third-largest bank, has made a net loss of 2.3bn euros (�1.6bn; $2.6bn) in the third quarter of the year. The loss was the result of a drastic write-down of the bank's assets, as it struggles to tidy up its balance sheet amid a sector-wide slowdown.
Commerzbank is selling millions of new shares to boost its capital.
The bank said it would lose 2bn euros for 2003 as a whole.
Scaling back
Once the effect of exceptional items such as the write-down is stripped away, Commerzbank is just in the black, and intends to remain so for the rest of this year.
The bank has suffered - along with rivals Deutsche and Dresdner - from the slowing German economy, and from the after-effects of heavy spending during the 1990s.
Last year, it lost some 300m euros, the first time in its history that it has plunged into the red.
It is in the process of shedding more than 7,000 jobs, and is scaling back on its once-mighty global ambitions.
Thge woes of Germany's banks are having a damaging effect on the wider economy, since few are willing to lend to the small and medium-sized firms that account for a large slice of the country's output.
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