Changes in the Board of Managing Directors of Commerzbank AG (754907)

Dow Jones received a payment from EQS/DGAP to publish this press release.

 
 
 Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft (CZB) 
Changes in the Board of Managing Directors of Commerzbank AG 
 
05-Dec-2018 / 17:43 CET/CEST 
Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement, transmitted by EQS Group. 
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. 
 
*- Michael Reuther, Board Member for Corporate Clients, does not wish to 
extend his contract, which runs to September 2019* 
 
*- Chief Operating Officer Frank Annuscheit will leave the Board on 28 
February 2019* 
 
*- Jörg Hessenmüller has been appointed to the Board of Managing Directors 
as his successor with effect from 1 January 2019* 
 
Michael Reuther, the Commerzbank AG Board member for Corporate Clients, has 
today notified the Supervisory Board that he is happy to fulfil his 
contract, which runs to the end of September 2019, but that he would decline 
a potential offer to extend his contract. At the same meeting, the 
Supervisory Board accepted, with regret, the request of Chief Operating 
Officer Frank Annuscheit to leave the Board on 28 February 2019 on health 
grounds. Jörg Hessenmüller has been named as Frank Annuscheit's successor. 
Jörg Hessenmüller's appointment to the Board of Managing Directors with 
effect from 1 January 2019 is still subject to the approval of the 
supervisory authorities. 
 
Supervisory Board Chairman Stefan Schmittmann acknowledged with regret the 
upcoming departure of Frank Annuscheit and the announcement by Michael 
Reuther, and expressed his recognition of their many years of successful 
work. 
 
Michael Reuther said of the reasons for his decision: 'I have always found 
my work at Commerzbank and with my fellow Board members very enjoyable. But 
after what will be 13 years on the Commerzbank Board, I would like to embark 
on a new chapter in my professional life. Under my current life plans, 
extending my contract is no longer an option. Therefore I would like to give 
the Bank enough time to find a suitable successor, and, in my final year at 
the Bank, bring the restructuring of the Corporate Clients segment to a 
successful conclusion. I think this is also a good time for a change of 
management in the Corporate Clients business. My successor can then focus 
fully on the further growth of the business.' 
 
Martin Zielke, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors of Commerzbank, 
commented: 'I am sorry to learn of Michael Reuther's decision, but I respect 
it. Michael Reuther is a valued colleague with a broad international profile 
and strong market expertise. He has made very good progress with the 
reorganisation of the Corporate Clients business, and I am pleased that he 
will be actively working with us on the transition and the search for his 
successor. During the integration of Dresdner Bank, he very successfully 
combined the trading operations of the two investment banks. The focus on 
client business only has made us a frontrunner in the industry. That 
deserves great credit. For that I extend my warmest thanks to Michael 
Reuther.' 
 
Frank Annuscheit said of his reasons for stepping down: 'I have been 
responsible for the Bank's IT and operations areas for 15 years, 11 of them 
as a member of the Board. That is a long time with a lot of transformations 
which have left their mark on me both professionally and personally. So the 
decision to withdraw from operational business did not come easily. But it 
is now time for me to focus on other priorities.' 
 
Martin Zielke, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors of Commerzbank, 
commented: 'Frank Annuscheit has been an important driving force for us. The 
head office restructuring recently decided on, whereby important IT 
functions are to be integrated into product development, was partly 
initiated by him. This is a bold and groundbreaking step for the Bank. The 
successful integration of Dresdner Bank's IT was also attributable to him. I 
would like to extend my thanks to Frank Annuscheit for this, and am pleased 
that he will continue to work with the Bank in the future.' 
 
Frank Annuscheit added: 'In a digital enterprise, the IT has to be even more 
closely integrated into product and process responsibility. It is a good 
time, prior to the start of the crucial phase of this restructuring, to hand 
over responsibility to someone new. I am pleased the Bank has found, in Jörg 
Hessenmüller, a successor who will accomplish this task with great passion 
and energy.' 
 
Jörg Hessenmüller, currently Divisional Board Member for the Group division 
Digital Transformation & Strategy, is to take over from Frank Annuscheit. 
 
The Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors of Commerzbank, Martin 
Zielke, said: 'I am delighted to welcome Jörg Hessenmüller to the Board. As 
Head of Strategy he was actively involved in shaping Commerzbank 4.0 and 
revamping the Group head office. In his new role he will drive and implement 
the ongoing digital transformation of the Bank. As a board member of mBank 
in Poland, he gained a wealth of experience in new technologies and their 
implementation.' 
 
***** 
 
Michael Reuther (59) has been a member of the Board of Managing Directors of 
Commerzbank AG since 2006, and most recently has been responsible for the 
Corporate Clients business. Until 2017, he was also the Divisional Board 
Member responsible for Group Treasury. Prior to that, he worked as Group 
Head of Liquidity Management and Head of Treasury Europe at Deutsche Bank AG 
in Frankfurt and London. Michael Reuther studied law and economics at the 
universities of Göttingen and Freiburg, before attending the New York 
University Leonard Stern School of Business and Harvard Business School. 
 
Frank Annuscheit (56) has held senior roles at Commerzbank since 2003, first 
as Chief Information Officer and Group Chief Operating Officer. Since 
January 2008 he has been a member of the Board of Managing Directors of 
Commerzbank, and is currently responsible for Group Banking Operations, 
Delivery Center, Group Information Technology, Group Markets Operations and 
Group Organisation & Security. A business graduate, he arrived from Deutsche 
Bank, where, among other things, he served as a board member of European 
Transaction Bank AG, and as Divisional Head of IT at Deutsche Bank 24. 
 
Jörg Hessenmüller (48) is the Divisional Board Member in charge of the Group 
division Digital Transformation & Strategy. Prior to that, he was a Board 
member at Polish mBank, responsible for Finance and Investor Relations, as 
well as the strategic development of the Commerzbank subsidiary. He began 
his career in 1989 at Dresdner Bank, with a traineeship as a banker, and 
worked in interest rate derivatives trading and Treasury before taking on 
managerial roles in Financial Controlling. In 2009, as part of the 
integration of Dresdner Bank into Commerzbank, he became global divisional 
head of Investmentbanking Finance within Group Management Finance. Jörg 
Hessenmüller studied business economics at the Frankfurt School of Finance & 
Management, specialising in banking and finance. 
 
***** 
 
*Press contact * 
Richard Lips [phone] 
Margarita Thiel [phone] 
 
***** 
 
About Commerzbank 
Commerzbank is a leading international commercial bank with branches and 
offices in almost 50 countries. In the two business segments Private and 
Small Business Customers and Corporate Clients, the Bank offers a 
comprehensive portfolio of financial services which is precisely aligned to 
its clients' needs. Commerzbank finances approximately 30% of Germany's 
foreign trade and is the leading finance provider for corporate clients in 
Germany. Due to its in-depth sector know-how in the German economy, the Bank 
is a leading provider of capital market products. Its subsidiaries Comdirect 
in Germany and mBank in Poland are two of the world's most innovative online 
banks. With approximately 1,000 branches, Commerzbank has one of the densest 
branch networks among German private banks. In total, Commerzbank serves 
more than 18 million private and small business customers, as well as more 
than 60,000 corporate clients, multinationals, financial service providers, 
and institutional clients. The Bank, which was founded in 1870, is 
represented at all the world's major stock exchanges. In 2017, it generated 
gross revenues of EUR9.1 billion with approximately 49,300 employees. 
 
***** 
 
*Disclaimer * 
This release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements 
are statements that are not historical facts. In this release, these 
statements concern inter alia the expected future business of Commerzbank, 
efficiency gains and expected synergies, expected growth prospects and other 
opportunities for an increase in value of Commerzbank as well as expected 
future financial results, restructuring costs and other financial 
developments and information. These forward-looking statements are based on 
the management's current plans, expectations, estimates and projections. 
They are subject to a number of assumptions and involve known and unknown 
risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results and 
developments to differ materially from any future results and developments 
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors 
include the conditions in the financial markets in Germany, in Europe, in 
the USA and other regions from which Commerzbank derives a substantial 
portion of its revenues and in which Commerzbank holds a substantial portion 
of its assets, the development of asset prices and market volatility, 
especially due to the ongoing European debt crisis, potential defaults of 
borrowers or trading counterparties, the implementation of its strategic 
initiatives to improve its business model, the reliability of its risk 
management policies, procedures and methods, risks arising as a result of 
regulatory change and other risks. Forward-looking statements therefore 

speak only as of the date they are made. Commerzbank has no obligation to 
update or release any revisions to the forward-looking statements contained 
in this release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this 
release. 
 
ISIN:          DE000CBK1001 
Category Code: MSCU 
TIDM:          CZB 
LEI Code:      851WYGNLUQLFZBSYGB56 
Sequence No.:  6774 
EQS News ID:   754907 
 
End of Announcement EQS News Service 
 
 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 05, 2018 11:43 ET (16:43 GMT)