While the banks had not publicly commented on merger talks until Sunday, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz last Monday confirmed that there are negotiations.
On Thursday, the supervisory boards of both banks are scheduled to hold long-planned meetings, four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The status of merger negotiations is expected to be discussed. The merged bank would have roughly 1.8 trillion euros in assets, such as loans and investments, and a market value of about 25 billion euros ($28.3 billion), based on Friday’s closing stock prices.
It would have one fifth of the German retail banking market and together the banks employ 140,000 people worldwide.
Germany’s Verdi labour union has objected strongly to a possible merger between the two banks, arguing that the merged group would be a more attractive target for a hostile foreign takeover and saying that at least 10,000 jobs are at risk.
Some major shareholders have privately said they were against a merger, but the U.S. investor Cerberus, a large investor in both banks, has favoured talks, a person familiar with the matter has told Reuters.
Deutsche, the largest bank in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, emerged unscathed from the financial crash but later lost its footing.
In 2016, the International Monetary Fund called the bank the world’s biggest potential risk among peers to the financial system because of its links to other banks.
German officials fear that a recession or big fine, for example, could derail the bank’s fragile recovery.
Other than Deutsche, Commerzbank is Germany’s only remaining big publicly bank, after a series of mergers.
Commerzbank, like Deutsche, has struggled to rebound, and German officials say it is vulnerable to a foreign takeover. If an international rival snapped it up, that would increase competition for Deutsche on its home turf.
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