Commerzbank: Orcel says the concern is sovereignty, but fragmentation is causing market share to be lost

In Germany, 27 per cent of customers are dissatisfied with banking services

“Is it better to regulate something that isn’t working or to share something that is working? That is the problem we face: there is a fear of losing sovereignty.” This was stated by Andrea Orcel, CEO of Unicredit, whilst discussing banking fragmentation at the Future Investment Initiative Institute Europe conference, with a clear reference to the situation in Germany, where the German federal government has spoken out against Unicredit’s bid for Commerzbank.

He explained that 27 per cent of bank customers in the German market “are dissatisfied”; it is one of the markets “with the highest penetration of fintech and where American groups are gaining ground: the problem is ‘fragmentation: there is no scalability and there is no investment’”. “What’s missing,” he concluded, “is that by protecting small players, we have allowed our competitors to gain a foothold.”

fon