ML-Implode News - The Curious Rush To Combine German Banks

German officials are laying the groundwork to change the nation's banking laws so that it's two largest banks, really "banks", can more easily combine. If it should ever come to that... DB would have to convert to a holding company triggering revaluation of assets and then the tax consequences of those. Unless, of course, auditing the bank's standing book reveals other malformities taking things in a different direction.
It's not just the rush toward marriage, it's more so who with. DB is both the target and the presumptive acquirer, an already odd situation. And if there is a healthy counterpart to DB's sickening status it's surely not Commerzbank, the institution being whispered up for combination.
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All of these things are related, furthermore connected to Germany's vulnerable external financing requirements ("dollar short"). DB's, as Commerzbank's, declining revenues and overall position indeed have led to a great contribution to the global "dollar shortage." The "dollar short" persists regardless, meaning that rock has met hard place; "funding costs have continued to rise" because these things become self-reinforcing.
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The bank raised significant capital early on in [2014], ostensibly to complete its comeback from the 2008 break. Having been fixed, and compliant with new regulations in full, what did DB's management decide was its best course? Unlike most of its other peers who were actively retreating, Deutsche plunged headlong into the riskiest assets -- global junk, including US corporates as well as US$ EM junk (Eurobonds).

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The Curious Rush To Combine German Banks