230967 com titel gb 02 e

Bancassurance activities expanded further
Commerz Partner, a joint venture with our bancassurance partner Aachen-
Münchener Versicherung, successfully expanded its activities in 2002. All told,
250 employees are now providing advice on old-age provision and financing.
This year, a further 150 are to join them.
Together with Aachen-Münchener, we see as yet untapped potential in
bancassurance business, which we will explore together.
comdirect bank successful with extensive programme for the future
comdirect bank has consolidated its market position as Germany’s largest online
broker, with over 622,000 customers. comdirect ltd, its UK subsidiary, more than
doubled its customer base and has moved from eighth to fourth place in the list
of the United Kingdom’s most popular online brokers.
The earnings performance of comdirect mirrors the weakness of securities
markets for the third year in a row. Customers’ reluctance to place orders led to
a 17% fall in net commission income. Due among other things to lower moneymarket
rates, net interest income before provisioning was down by 13.8%.
All the same, the pre-tax profit and the profit from ordinary activities of the
comdirect bank Group registered a marked improvement on the previous year.
The pre-tax profit in 2002 was minus 718.6m compared with minus 7150.5m in
the same period of 2001. At group level, comdirect was the only German online
broker to achieve a profit from its ordinary activities – namely 74.7m after a loss
of 752m in the previous year. comdirect has impressively demonstrated, therefore,
that online brokerage is a viable business model even in difficult times.
Primarily, this is due to the bank’s extensive programme for the future, “com
one”, for which the necessary restructuring expenses were already booked in
the third quarter of 2002. The measures introduced to cut costs are having an
impact. The service centre in Kiel has been closed down, the reduction of 300
full-time staff announced last September was completed two months earlier
than planned. At the same time, functions have been combined and corporate
structures as a whole have been made considerably leaner. The third component
of com one is the stabilization of earnings. With a pricing model in brokerage
that is geared to market conditions and a balanced product portfolio, focusing
more strongly on derivative financial instruments and fund products, comdirect
had already improved its average margin by year-end.
Quickborn is developing into the Commerzbank Group’s centre of competence
for direct banking. Through the relocation to Quickborn of the call centre
of Commerz Service Gesellschaft (CSG), the telephone-based facility for
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