Commerzbank Labor Rep Vows ‘Blood’ Before Italian Bank Takeover

Commerzbank AG’s labor representatives would strongly oppose a potential takeover of the lender by an Italian bank, a supervisory board member of the German lender said on Monday.

“A lot of blood will spill before we merge with the Italians,” Stefan Wittmann, a Verdi union official and labor representative on Commerzbank’s supervisory board, said during a panel discussion in Berlin, without naming any bank. “The resistance we showed in the merger talks with Deutsche Bank is nothing compared to what we would do if a large Italian bank were to try to take over Commerzbank.”