For one of the most considerate men in capital markets, nothing was ever too much trouble.

After its DAX return, Commerzbank now has a clear – if uncertain – path to achieving its profit target, according to CFO Bettina Orlopp.

The European Central Bank has made it clear that it would look favourably on big bank mergers to create stronger pan-eurozone lenders. But M&A between large lenders in different eurozone states is still stalling through financial and political fragmentation – despite hopes for a closer union after Brexit and the war in Ukraine.

The former Commerzbank chief executive and co-head of wealth management at UBS heads a strong team to help company founders with running a public company.

As European bank consolidation finally gets under way, Euromoney looks at the financial firepower of the region’s top 20 players. Which banks are now best-placed to do the acquiring and which are at risk of being swallowed up? Mid-tier banks in southern Europe look especially vulnerable.

No golf please, I’m delivering: how the German bank’s new CEO sees himself.

Manfred Knof starts early next year, after Martin Zielke is ousted by Cerberus. He joins recently arrived chairman Hans-Jörg Vetter.

Everyone wanted radical change at Commerzbank, except the bank itself.

Firms such as Deposit Solutions and Raisin are thriving, partly because Europe’s wealthy are so risk averse.

The biggest challenge in German banking has suddenly gone from job cuts to handing out state-guaranteed loans as quickly as possible.

A few big banks in Germany, Switzerland and France pay the majority of the charges their central banks now levy on their reserves – Euromoney looks at which ones are worst affected and asks how they can manage the pain and maintain a conservative approach to liquidity and risk.

A merger is still CEO Martin Zielke’s only real hope.

Clients have had a much easier time than their banks in Germany, but fintech innovation is creating ways for the likes of Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank to thrive, even in the country’s SME heartlands.

As Europe’s financial conduct authorities get tougher, banks will be even less likely to support trade between the EU and states that are small and poor.

While Commerzbank might yet be an attractive partner in European consolidation, Deutsche is caught in a horrible cycle of continuing to cut costs to offset declining revenues.

Debate around the UniCredit-Commerzbank merger will centre on its impact on European banks’ share prices as Eurosceptic populism makes cost cutting more difficult.

Germany may conduct a strange experiment in state-sponsored investment banking if a merger between Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank proceeds.

However the situation plays out, it might be the smaller firm that ends up in the stronger position.

From Deutsche Bank to Santander or ING, banks in Europe need to change with the times and accept accountability to a wider public, represented by their governments: as with weak capital, deficient ethics will only entail greater state control.

Commerzbank's online-only bank is a hefty beast, but growing faster than ever

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Sale offers relief from share price dip.

Austria

After a year in the recovery ward, 2017 results show some banks are healing. The most serious illness, negative rates, is stubbornly resistant however. The danger remains that banks may not recover before another disease –financial or technological – strikes.