| Website | https://www.commerzbank.com/ |
| Headquarters |
Kaiserplatz
60261 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
|
| CEO/chair |
Manfred Knof Chairman |
| Supervisor | |
| Ownership |
listed on Frankfurt Stock Exchange
Commerzbank's major shareholder is the German state (> 15%). The bank's complete shareholder structure can be accessed here. |
Commerzbank AG, established in 1870, is Germany's second largest bank, and headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. Next to a large presence in the German banking market, Commerzbank has numerous branch offices throughout Europe. The bank's activities focus on: private customers, small business and Corporates & Markets.
Commerzbank's most important sustainability commitments can be found at the website sections listed below.
Commerzbank is linked to a number of companies and projects that BankTrack considers controversial (so called Dodgy Deals), e.g. as a current or past financier or through an expression of interest. The profiles below provide more details on the nature of Commerzbank's link to these deals.
The 2022 Banking on Climate Chaos report showed that Commerzbank provided US$ 12.90 billion in financing to the fossil fuel industry between 2016 and 2021. Find further details on Commerzbank fossil fuel portfolio and how it compares to other large banks globally on Fossil Banks No Thanks and in the Banking on Climate Chaos report.
Reclaim Finance tracks the coal, oil and gas policies of financial institutions, including banks, in the Coal Policy Tracker and Oil and Gas Policy Tool. Find further details on their assessment of Commerzbank's fossil fuel policy below.
BankTrack assessed Commerzbank in its 2022 Global Human Rights Benchmark, where it achieved 2.5 points out of 14 and was ranked as a laggard. In addition, Commerzbank scored 0 out of 3 on how it responds to alleged human rights violations linked to its finance, which were raised by civil society organisations. More information is detailed in the "Accountability" section of this profile.
Commerzbank’s policies for forest-risk sectors (beef, soy, palm oil, pulp and paper, rubber and timber) have been assessed by the Forests & Finance coalition, achieving an overall score of 2.2 out of 10 and ranking it as a follower. Commerzbank achieved a score of 0 out of 10 specifically for its policies related to the beef sector and 6.6 out of 10 for its policies related to the palm oil sector. In addition, BankTrack and the Environmental Paper Network have assessed Commerzbank’s policies related to the pulp and paper sector.
Between 2016 and 2022, Commerzbank provided USD 447 million in credit to companies operating in these forest-risk sectors and held investments amounting to USD 1 million as of 2022. For more information, see the links below.
A bank can obtain a total of 10 points for the quality of its policies. The total score is based on their scores per sector, weighted against their financing and investment for each sector. For further details on this see here. Based on their overall score, banks are then classified as Laggards, Followers, Front runners or Leaders, as follows:
A bank can obtain a total of 10 points for the quality of its beef policy. The total score is based on their scores per sector, weighted against their financing and investment for each sector. For further details on this see here. Based on their overall score, banks are then classified as Laggards, Followers, Front runners or Leaders, as follows:
A bank can obtain a total of 10 points for the quality of its palm oil policy. The total score is based on their scores per sector, weighted against their financing and investment for each sector. For further details on this see here. Based on their overall score, banks are then classified as Laggards, Followers, Front runners or Leaders, as follows:
Commerzbank is a member of the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) and has therefore committed to reduce its financed emissions to net zero by 2050; within 18 months of joining the alliance set interim targets for 2030 (or sooner) for high emission priority sectors, and within 36 months set further sector targets; set new intermediary targets every 5 years from 2030 onwards; annually publish data on emissions and progress against a transition strategy including climate-related sectoral policies; and take a robust approach to the role of offsets in transition plans. BankTrack track's implementation of these commitments in the NZBA compliance tracker.
BankTrack is keeping track of the public response of Commerzbank to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. Commerzbank did not publicly condemn the war. Commerzbank is considered by Leave-Russia.org to be "suspending" its operations in Russia. We consider its exposure to Russia as limited, with over $1.45bn of financial assets. Commerzbank supports the Russian fossil fuel industry through loans and underwriting. For further details, see the table linked below.
Commerzbank has not established any complaints or grievances mechanism available to individuals or communities who might be affected by the bank's finance. It is however possible to lodge a complaint with the OECD National Contact Point (see OECD Watch guidance).
This page evaluates Commerzbank's responses to instances of alleged human rights violations linked to its finance, raised by civil society organisations. It is not intended to be exhaustive, but covers selected impacts raised by BankTrack and other civil society partners since 2016. For the full scoring methodology, see here. For more information about BankTrack's evaluation of bank responses to human rights impacts, see the 2021 report "Actions speak louder: assessing bank responses to human rights violations".
