COMMERZBANK AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT

Group Management Report
160
104 Commerzbank Annual Report 2011
Broad product range for SMEs
As a strategic business partner, we are committed to a customer- and market-oriented service
approach. We strive to offer our customers a needs-driven product range of funding solutions,
cash and treasury management, payment transactions, foreign business and risk
management on competitive market terms. We are also able to offer small SME customers
access to capital markets by working closely with the Corporates & Markets segment.
Competent and reliable funding of SMEs
Commerzbank considers itself to have a special responsibility towards German SMEs as their
biggest lender. We support the broad segment of SMEs with classic credit finance and a
range of innovative structures. Mid-sized and larger SMEs receive additional support from
experts from our Financial Engineering area in the form of customised and individual finance
solutions. In addition to classic funding instruments, we draw on leasing, factoring,
borrowing base and mezzanine products. This also helps us provide financial support for our
customers’ complex growth strategies.
To live up to our claim as the leading SME bank, we have around 200 highly qualified finance
specialists in the Financial Engineering area throughout Germany who are available
to give advice. We guarantee quick lending decisions through a systematic sector structure
of the back office, lean credit processes and short decision-making paths. The “sustainability”
analysis is applied to the credit decision in many sectors and supplements the standard
bank ratings-based valuation with an individual, future-oriented, sector-specific assessment
of our customers’ business models. Even in a volatile market environment, this enables us
to better assess the market and competitive position of a company, independently of financial
statistics and planning factors.
Supporting our customers’ investment plans by passing on attractively priced public subsidised
loans was once again a particular focus for us last year. In order to further increase
the use of subsidies, we introduced new advisory software and carried out extensive staff
training on its use.
Rising demand for individual funding solutions
Despite the increasing uncertainty in 2011, there was good demand for structured loans for
funding growth, particularly in the first half of the year, but competitive pressures also intensified
in response to the initially positive economic environment. The success of our SME
syndicated funding, which we offer under the name of “Club Deal”, underscored the need for
customised funding solutions. There was also lively demand for funding for acquisitions by
SMEs. We were able to support numerous transactions by financial investors and in the corporate-to-corporate
sector.