Commerzbank, Germany's second-biggest lender, will announce plans to split up its Mittelstandsbank and shrink its investment banking at the end of September after a supervisory board meeting on Sept. 29, sources told CNBC.
The bank is mulling another overhaul of its structure by separating lending to smaller-business customers from that of larger customers from the Mittelstand and also shrink its investment banking substantially, the sources said. The plans to restructure were first reported by the newspaper Handelsblatt on Sept. 9.
The strategy foresees bundling larger Mittelstand clients in a small investment bank and transfer smaller business clients to its private customer unit.
The cuts could entail up top 9,000 job cuts, sources tell CNBC, as the bank aims to reduce back-office jobs and investment banking positions. Where the jobs will be chopped exactly and over which time horizon, has not been decided yet, the sources said.
A spokeswoman for Commerzbank declined to comment on the plans.
Commerzbank underwent several rounds of restructuring as it was badly hit by the financial crisis and the subsequent sovereign debt crisis as it once owned Europe´s biggest state financier EuroHypo, which was wound down. The bank has been struggling to increase profitability amid low interest rates, falling lending to businesses and higher regulatory costs.
The lender's German shares are down more than 35 percent year to date.