(Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank has always favored mergers between lenders headquartered across the region, a top official said when asked about UniCredit SpA’s potential acquisition of Commerzbank AG.
“Let’s see what will happen,” ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos said at a conference on Monday in Madrid. “We have always been in favor of cross-border mergers. Whenever there is one, national concerns typically arise.”
Milan-based UniCredit snapped up Commerzbank shares the German government sold last week and said a full takeover of the lender is one option it’s considering. Such a deal would show European banks can forge closer ties between fragmented markets, despite the lack of joint deposit insurance and other pieces of financial architecture that EU politicians have failed to agree on.
While a takeover of Commerzbank could be in the European interest, Bloomberg has reported that the German Finance Ministry had planned to sell the 4.5% stake to institutional shareholders, rather than another bank.
Guindos signaled that any deal would be judged on its specific merits.
“The important thing is how appropriate a merger is from the point of view of the business model,” he said.
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