Commerzbank sees bad loans increase as pandemic revives

The German bank Commerzbank suffered a lot from the COVID-19 lockdowns in the third quarter. The bank’s profits were lower than those expected by analysts. In addition, Commerbank warned that the number of bad loans could increase as the pandemic revives.

In the last quarter, sales of just over EUR 2 billion were about 7 percent lower than last year. The bank set aside EUR 272 million for loans that may not be repaid. In addition, due to costs for reorganizations, Commerzbank wrote red figures with a loss of 69 million euros.

Commerzbank has been struggling for some time now after topman Martin Zielke decided to finish the trading branch and put more on borrowing. However, with continued low interest rates, this is a difficult market to make money from. In fact, banks with a trading branch have recently made a lot of money because the turmoil caused by the coronacrisis has led to more stock trading than usual.