Eurohypo

It was formed after all three German banks suffering years of writedowns on their real estate lending books, and having to hold greater amounts of regulatory capital against such exposures.

Thus Commerzbank acquired a subsidiary, which was not only the largest Pfandbrief issuer in Europe, but had also become one of the most important players in the European securitisation business and market leader in Syndicated Loans.

The financial crisis of 2008 (and later years) had a material effect on Eurohypo, and started to worsen the relationship with its parent bank.

However, new lending activity was very limited and did not make up for the effect of the material writedowns which Eurohypo was now starting to suffer on its book, in common with other banks exposed to the real estate sector.

Having appointed Frank Poerschke to be Eurohypo CEO in 2007, he left in mid-2011 to take a position with Jones Lang LaSalle.

In a surprise move, the board of Eurohypo was forced to announce that it would cease lending in all countries apart from Germany for a six-month period, in order to return various capital ratios to more acceptable levels.

Internally within Eurohypo this was a source of significant frustration, as client loyalty was largely a function of always being seen by the market as being open for business.

Since June 2012, Eurohypo has been officially in wind-down, with some parts of the bank trying to create an auction for regional loan books, such as the one in the UK.

Some market commentators have also viewed the attempted sale of the "UK management platform"as being driven by certain senior staff at the London branch, rather than by Commerzbank, and therefore equally unlikely to succeed.