In the future, norisbank is to operate only as a direct bank via the internet. The deutsche bank did not want to confirm a corresponding report of the "financial times deutschland" (wednesday). A spokesman said only: "a cooperation agreement has been concluded between postbank and norisbank, now talks with employee representatives on the details are pending."
The abandonment of the norisbank branch network has long been the subject of speculation. In august 2006, deutsche bank acquired the bank, which now has around 650,000 customers, from the cooperative DZ bank for 420 million euros in order to strengthen its private customer business. At that time, the long-favored commerzbank had drawn the short straw. The "easycredit" brand, under which consumer loans are marketed, was retained by the cooperative.
2006 marked a turnaround at deutsche bank: chief executive josef ackermann, once the top investment banker at germany’s largest financial institution, realized that the capital market business alone could not be the savior in the long run. Under the swiss banker’s leadership, deutsche bank has invested billions in its long neglected retail banking business: berliner bank and norisbank (both 2006), sal. Oppenheim (2009), postbank (2010).
At his last presentation of the financial statements at the beginning of february 2012, outgoing ceo ackermann summed up the situation as follows: "we have abandoned risky business activities and, by massively expanding our traditional banking business, have considerably strengthened our second earnings pillar."While there were severe setbacks in investment banking, retail banking has recently been a mainstay of the group.
With the takeover of the much larger postbank, which has a similar business model, norisbank lost importance in the deutsche bank group. The industry leader secured a majority stake in postbank at the end of 2010 and currently holds around 52 percent of the bonn-based group, which has around 14 million customers. As of this february, the dax group will receive a further 40 percent from the former postbank parent, deutsche post.
In january, deutsche bank had started negotiations with postbank on a control and profit transfer agreement. At the end of 2011, it reached an agreement with the unions on spinning off postbank employees into independent companies.