COMMERZBANK AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT

Group Management Report
150
94 Commerzbank Annual Report 2011
Private Customers
The Private Customers division covers Commerzbank’s branch business in Germany for pri-
vate and business customers as well as Wealth Management. As a provider of sophisticated
financial services, we place great value on top-quality advice and tailored financial solutions.
Our customer segments occupy prime positions in Germany. In Private and Business Customers,
Commerzbank is the number one retail bank with the largest single-brand branch
network. In Wealth Management, it is one of the leading providers with the greatest regional
coverage. Furthermore, Commerzbank is one of the nation’s biggest lenders to private customers,
granting a total of €52bn. With 1,200 branches in future, we are never very far from
our customers. As a provider of sophisticated financial services, we place great value on
quality advice and financial solutions tailored to our customers’ varied requirements.
Private Customers – strong Internet presence and customer-oriented products ensure
success in competition-driven environment
The integration of Dresdner Bank in 2011 played a key role for Private Customers, which encompasses
broad Private Customer business and Private Banking. It was therefore important
to us to structure the integration in the most customer-friendly way possible. Intensive
preparations and in-depth staff training helped us successfully deal with the migration of
customer and product data in April 2011. With the data migration complete, we began
merging 396 pairs of branches located close to each other. In 2011, we merged 123 pairs of
branches and also undertook redesign work as part of the branch modernisation process.
Furthermore, 34 former Dresdner Bank branches that were not merged with a Commerzbank
branch – and will consequently remain in place – were remodelled as “Branches of the future
PLUS”. Fixed costs in branch business fell significantly, but our market coverage remained
the same.
With our new sales management and “Customer focus” strategy and growth programme,
we also set the course for gearing our sales efforts and range of services even more strongly
towards our customers’ needs.
One particular challenge in 2011 was the uncertainty among customers caused by the
turbulence on the financial markets. In particular, this significantly increased demand for
traditional savings products with fixed terms, calculable returns or regular paying-in options.
We launched a wide-scale advertising campaign with new attractive products from autumn
2011 in response to these needs from customers. It was the first campaign under the new
overall concept. For our very safety conscious customers, we offered a return of 2.1% p.a.
with our “Topzins-Anlage”. Prior to this, we had already seen growth with our successful
“Topzins-Konto Plus”. All in all, we saw a considerable rise in deposit levels.