Commerzbank Finance Chief Strutz Will Exit German Bank When Contract Ends

Commerzbank AG (CBK), Germany’s second- biggest bank, said Chief Financial Officer Eric Strutz plans to step down when his contract expires in March.

Strutz, 46, who joined the bank in 2001 and became finance chief in 2003, told the supervisory board he doesn’t wish to extend his mandate, the Frankfurt-based company said yesterday in a statement.

As a management board member since 2004, he helped lead the bank during the purchase of unprofitable rival Dresdner Bank before the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the ensuing credit crisis and a government bailout.

“Eric Strutz has guided the finances of the bank through extremely difficult times, and it is not only this that has gained him an outstanding reputation,” Chairman Klaus-Peter Mueller said in the statement. Still, “we can understand his desire to begin a new chapter in his personal plans.”

Commerzbank reports second-quarter results today. The bank’s stock has declined 81 percent, closing at 2.13 euros in Frankfurt trading, during Strutz’s tenure on the management board. The bank received 18 billion euros ($26 billion) from the country’s Soffin bank-rescue fund amid the Dresdner takeover.

Commerzbank said on June 7 that it raised 5.3 billion euros in the second step of a capital increase to raise a total of 11 billion euros to repay government aid. Chief Executive Officer Martin Blessing said in April that the bank planned to repay about 14.3 billion euros in so-called silent participations to Soffin by June through the sale of new shares and use of excess reserves.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ragnhild Kjetland in Frankfurt at rkjetland@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong in Berlin at kwong11@bloomberg.net