Commerzbank cites progress in effort to cut 10,000 jobs

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Germany’s Commerzbank said on Friday it had made further progress in its effort to cut 10,000 jobs after it concluded negotiations with employee representatives.

The cuts are a pillar of a restructuring plan under Chief Executive Officer Manfred Knof, who earlier this year took the helm of Germany’s No. 2 bank to set it back on a path to profit.

“We have reached an important milestone,” Knof said.

Commerzbank said it would now be able to move forward with the cuts in a “socially responsible” fashion and that the bank had already struck agreements on more than half of the 10,000 jobs to be cut.

New structures will mean around 30% fewer managers, Commerzbank said.

Last week, Commerzbank surprised with better-than-expected third-quarter net earnings and forecast a profit for the full year, defying analysts’ predictions for a 2021 loss.

(Reporting by Tom Sims and Frank Siebelt; Editing by Christoph Steitz, Kirsten Donovan)