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To: smolejv@gmx.net who wrote (44399)	1/7/2004 10:55:13 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

The end of that Bismark thing: Pension. Imagine if this becaomes a fashion, DJ! Commerzbank takes an axe to pension scheme By Claudia Wanner, Rolf Lebert and Fidelius Schmid in Frankfurt Financial Times; Jan 06, 2004 Commerzbank, Germany's third-largest bank, is cancelling the employee pension schemes for its 26,000 staff from 2005. It hopes to save tens of millions of euros a year at a time of "difficult economic conditions". The bank is today expected to tell employees that entitlements to pension schemes can only be claimed during 2004 and will cease from January 2005. After 2004 the company scheme will be closed to new entrants, and for existing members the company, the sole contributor, will make no new contributions. The company will continue to contribute to the state scheme for its workers. Frankfurt-based Commerzbank's measure follows a €2.3bn ($2.9bn) write-down in November which led to a net loss for the three months to September. Bankers in Frankfurt yesterday saw the move as a way of making the bank "more attractive" to potential buyers. For foreign banks interested in buying into the German banking market, "unpredictable" pension provisions have constituted an obstacle for merger plans. Commerzbank and HVB, Germany's second-largest bank, have for months been rumoured as the most likely candidates to be taken over or to merge. For Commerzbank employees, the pensions move came as a shock. "This is absolutely unbelievable. The bank is saving at the cost of its employees. The measure is a break for the social consensus between the bank and its employees," said a senior Commerzbank employee. Commerzbank is the first German bank to take this measure. HVB, Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank yesterday said they had no plans to follow suit. "This is a sensitive territory. We are already expecting our employees to accept a lot. The cancellation of the employee pension scheme would be the last straw," said HVB. Uwe Foullong, employee representative on Commerzbank's supervisory board, called the measure a "cultural breach". Caio Koch-Weser, state secretary in the finance ministry, has been urging German banks to merge to keep "internationally operating raiders" at bay. Among the foreign banks that have looked over the German market are Citigroup, Credit Suisse, BNP Paribas and Royal Bank of Scotland. search.ft.com search.ft.com