Financial Statements and Management Report Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft
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Financial Statements and Management Report Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft Contents 4 Management report 4 Structure and organisation 4 Corporate responsibility 8 Remuneration report 23 Details pursuant to Art. 289 of the German Commercial Code (HGB) 26 Business and overall conditions 29 Earnings performance, assets and financial position 31 Report on events after the reporting period 32 Outlook and opportunities report 37 Risk report 71 Income statement 72 Balance sheet 76 Notes 76 General information 80 Notes to the income statement 81 Notes to the balance sheet 92 Other notes 114 Responsibility statement by the Board of Managing Directors 115 Independent auditors’ report 4 Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft Management report of Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft Structure and organisation Corporate responsibility Commerzbank is one of Germany’s leading banks for private and cor- Climate protection has long been a key part of social responsibility porate customers, and an internationally active universal bank with at Commerzbank, and not just since the World Climate Summit in locations spanning more than 50 countries. Our customers have one Paris in 2015. This can be seen in our core business, for instance of the densest networks of any private-sector bank in Germany at their the financing of renewable energy or carbon emissions trading, disposal. Commerzbank serves a total of around 16 million private cus- and also in our efforts to further reduce our own environmental tomers and 1 million business and corporate customers worldwide. footprint. As a way of publicly emphasising our commitment, At Commerzbank, business activities are divided into the four Commerzbank joined several initiatives in 2015, among them the operating segments of Private Customers, Mittelstandsbank, Cor- World Bank’s Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition. Partners com- porates & Markets and Central & Eastern Europe. Through these mit to working towards a global price for CO2 emissions that is in segments, Commerzbank offers its private and corporate custom- line with the harm caused by greenhouse gases. The RE100 initia- ers and its institutional investors a comprehensive portfolio of tive, under which companies from all over the world undertake to banking and capital market services. The Bank has merged all switch to renewable energies, is another example. But our efforts activities in commercial real estate and ship financing, in addition to go beyond just climate protection; Commerzbank strives for sus- public finance business, into the Non-Core Assets (NCA) run-off tainable economic development that avoids risks to our business segment. The four operating segments are each overseen by a mem- and also taps into the opportunities created by facing the future. ber of the Board of Managing Directors; responsibility for the Group divisions within NCA is divided between two Board members. All staff and management functions are contained in Group Integrity as a guiding principle in daily activity Management: Group Audit, Group Communications, Group Com- pliance, Group Development & Strategy, Group Finance, Group Our sustainable development is founded on behaviour that com- Human Resources, Group Investor Relations, Group Legal, Group plies with the law and is ethically irreproachable. This was not al- Treasury and the central risk functions. The support functions are ways the case in the past. In March 2015, Commerzbank agreed provided by Group Services. These include Group Banking Opera- settlements with various US authorities regarding serious viola- tions, Group Markets Operations, Group Information Technology, tions of US sanctions and anti-money laundering provisions. Part Group Organisation & Security, Group Delivery Centre and Group of the settlements involved paying fines of around USD 1.5bn Excellence & Support. The staff, management and support func- (roughly €1.2bn). They also required Commerzbank to put in place tions are combined in the Others and Consolidation division for a comprehensive programme called ARC (Achieving a Robust reporting purposes. Compliance Framework) to ensure employees keep within the law On the domestic market, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft is and regulations. To do this, Commerzbank is improving its compli- headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, from where it manages a ance function and reinforcing compliance management in all its nationwide branch network through which all customer groups are business units around the world. In addition to the ARC pro- served. Its major German subsidiaries are comdirect bank AG, Com- gramme, by way of “tone from the top” the members of the Board merz Real AG and Hypothekenbank Frankfurt AG. Outside Ger- of Managing Directors regularly stress that the Bank takes its many, the Bank has 6 material subsidiaries, 23 operational foreign comprehensive compliance obligations seriously and expects branches and 37 representative offices in more than 50 countries every single employee to do the same. In autumn 2015, the Board and is represented in all major financial centres, such as London, of Managing Directors put forward an updated version of the bind- New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. However, the focus ing Code of Conduct. of the Bank’s international activities is on Europe. The financial year is the calendar year. Financial Statements and Management Report 2015 5 This sets out a framework for proper and ethically irreproach- At the same time, interest in sustainable offerings is growing able behaviour in daily work, and makes clear what Commerz- on the investment side. A new fund was launched in 2015 called bank and its Board of Managing Directors expect from all of the Commerzbank Global Equities – Catholic Values, which allows in- Group’s employees: that they not only comply with laws, regula- vestors to participate in the performance of an international equity tions and internal guidelines but also stay within our guiding portfolio with an investment strategy based on the sustainability principles, the ComValues. Integrity is especially important. It is criteria of the Roman Catholic church. The Catholic Value Custom only by acting with integrity that we can create a foundation for Index includes over 700 stocks from the MSCI World Index. the trust our customers and business partners place in us. This As one of the leading banks in foreign trade settlement, trust is our most important capital. That is why all Commerzbank Commerzbank also has to consider sustainability issues with re- employees have to take responsibility for their actions. Managers spect to global trade. The financial sector can play a leading role have to set an example. in the shift towards more sustainably based trading. That is why Reputational Risk Management is another Group unit central to in 2015 we produced a two-part study on sustainable trade with defining the framework for our business activities. In 2015, the the consultancy firm Oxford Analytica. It is intended to encourage department assessed some 5,400 transactions, products and cus- a rich exchange of views between politicians, companies, NGOs tomer relationships in which sustainability was particularly rele- and consumers. vant (2014: around 5,000). This marks a slight increase in the A quite different but no less important aspect of sustainability number of assessments. The department’s activities focused on is customer focus. Long-term relationships of trust are built on optimising reputational risk processes in the Mittelstandsbank, direct dialogue. That is why the Private Customers segment has Private Customers and Corporates & Markets segments. Requests the Commerzbank Customer Advisory Council, which took on new that are incompatible with our understanding of corporate respon- members in 2015. Over their three-year term of office, 25 volun- sibility received a negative evaluation due to social, environmental teers keep an eye on how the Bank is developing, make sugges- or ethical concerns. Examples include nuclear power, oil and gas. tions about advice, products and services, take part in workshops, In 2015, the department also drafted assessment criteria for coal- polls and test studies and have discussions with managers and fired power stations and human rights. technical specialists. Sustainable offering Active climate protection The growing importance of sustainability is opening up numerous Another element in our sustainability effort is operational envi- business opportunities for Commerzbank: using renewable forms ronmental protection. The Commerzbank climate target of reduc- of energy, raising energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas ing CO2 emissions by 70% by 2020 compared with 2007 had al- emissions require new technologies and products, which incur a ready largely been achieved by the end of 2014, with a reduction high level of investment. Commerzbank has been making a signifi- of 67.1%. Since 2015, unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions cant contribution to financing renewable energy since the mid- have been offset by buying and retiring valuable CO2 certificates. 1980s. In 2015, the Energy Competence Centre’s loan portfolio Commerzbank’s operations are therefore climate-neutral. This totalled around €5.1bn, compared with €4.6bn in the previous commitment was recognised at the DQS sustainability conference, year. Commerzbank has financed around 17% of Germany’s total with Commerzbank wining the German Award for Excellence 2015 wind power output. in the carbon footprint category. The Bank also scored 100 out of The shift to renewables