Germany Needs a Plan B After Deutsche Bank Deal Collapses
- Finance Minister fails in push for national banking champion
- Scholz renews call for ‘competitive’ banks for German industry
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The collapse of merger talks between Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG is a crushing defeat for German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz.
While Chancellor Angela Merkel steered clear of the proposed deal, Scholz’s fingerprints were all over it. A potential Social Democratic challenger to lead the next government, Scholz was the biggest advocate for a merger despite the threat of thousands of job losses, and now needs a new plan to fix Germany’s troubled financial sector.