Commerzbank to lend across Europe for first time since crisis
Commerzbank is reportedly to begin expanding its lending operations across Europe, after having restricted itself to core operations in just Germany, Austria, and Switzerland since the financial crisis; this is according to the head of the bank's international corporate banking division, Bernd Laber, who has been quoted in German newspapers. Laber said specifically that the bank wants "to win companies with revenue of more then €250m as customers across the whole of Europe."

After years of focusing its activities on business related to Germany and its neighbours such as Austria and Switzerland, Commerzbank is seeking to broaden its perspective, the newspaper reported, quoting Bernd Laber, head of the lender's international corporate banking division.

"We want to win companies with revenue of more than 250 million euros (£179.93 million) as customers across the whole of Europe," Laber told Handelsblatt in an interview.

Germany's second-biggest lender, based in Frankfurt, scaled back its foreign business activities after being rescued by the federal government amid the 2008 financial crisis. The German government saved the bank from its near-collapse with an infusion of more than 18 billion euros, much of which has been repaid.

(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by David Holmes)