UniCredit chief Andrea Orcel is preparing to seize control of Commerzbank as early as January, accelerating the timetable for what would be Europe's biggest bank takeover since the financial crisis. The Italian lender aims to secure control by the end of February and replace all 10 shareholder members on Commerzbank's 20-person supervisory board. UniCredit already holds a 47.6 per cent stake acquired in July, which analysts suggest could provide de facto control.

The move follows Berlin's softening stance, with the German government now setting conditions rather than opposing the deal outright. Once in control, Orcel plans a radical overhaul including scrapping parts of Commerzbank's international network and unwinding roughly €20bn of corporate lending outside core German and Polish markets. The plans involve significant cost-cutting, targeting roughly 7,000 job reductions while safeguarding core Mittelstand clients.

Orcel has pushed back against German demands to retain supervisory board seats, insisting on restructuring the bank's operations. The €45bn takeover represents a foreign lender overcoming long-standing political barriers to cross-border consolidation in European banking. Berlin maintains requirements for Commerzbank to remain headquartered and listed in Frankfurt, with employee interests for its 40,000 staff to be protected.