Germany's second-largest lender Commerzbank is considering slashing around 5,000 jobs as part of a massive overhaul to halt a slide in profits, media reports said Friday. The cuts would amount to about 10 percent of the bank's workforce, the Wall Street Journal wrote, citing sources close to the matter. Chief executive Martin Zielke is set to unveil the plans next week, which would also include getting rid of a unit that deals with mid-sized clients and dividing those businesses over other divisions, the WSJ added.
German financial paper Boersen-Zeitung also reported that 5,000 jobs could be lost as part of the restructuring, without mentioning its sources. Bloomberg, citing two people with knowledge of the matter, confirmed the plans for a new strategy but did not give a precise figure for the cuts, saying only the bank was preparing to eliminate "thousands of jobs". A spokeswoman for the bank declined to comment on the reports when contacted by AFP.