Germany's Scholz Signals Support for ‘National Champion’ Banks

  • Scholz says talks with banks focus on things ‘to be done’
  • ‘There’s no debate about a bad bank,’ he says at London event

Olaf Scholz In London on Feb. 8. 

Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
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German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz signaled support for a “national champion” in the banking industry, amid speculation that the government is seeking to drive forward a potential merger of Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG.

While he stopped short of explicitly spelling out a plan for Germany’s biggest lenders, Scholz’s comments at a Bloomberg event in London Friday are the clearest acknowledgment yet by a top official that the government is mulling all options.