Comdirect

In 1994, the Commerzbank desired to expand its business and customer base and therefore decided to establish a direct bank.[7] Commerzbank founded Comdirect, which was registered in December 1994 as a private limited company (GmbH - Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung).[8] It began operations with 50 employees and 50 million Deutsche Mark on equity in January 1995.[9] The company positioned itself not as a traditional direct bank like seen before, but instead as a universal bank for private customers with a wide range of specialized products.[10] One of the first products of the Comdirect Bank was a money market account. Also, securities trading became one of the top priorities.[11]

Within the first few months, the Comdirect Bank gained tens of thousands of customers.[12] In the late 1990s, the Comdirect Bank expanded to other European countries.[13] The Commerzbank and Deutsche Telekom agreed on the cooperation of their subsidiaries, the Comdirect Bank and T-Online International.[14] Comdirect Bank became a public company (Aktiengesellschaft) in November 1999 and went public in June 2000.[8][5] Commerzbank sold a minority stake in the company.[15] The stock was oversubscribed several times and later became part of the Nemax 50 index and the Prime Standard of Frankfurt Stock Exchange.[16][17] The proceeds of the initial public offering were used to build the investment banking of the Comdirect Bank, for example.[18] The company doubled its workforce to cope with the growing number of customers.[19]

In 2000, the burst of the dot-com bubble hit the financial industry. The Comdirect Bank was also affected and as a result, growth slowed.[20][21] After several successful years, the bank announced losses in 2001.[22] As the Comdirect Bank slipped into financial difficulties, the board launched a savings program.[23] At the end of 2001, the Comdirect Bank announced to focus on Germany and the United Kingdom. The company places its loss-making branches at disposal; the subsidiaries in France and Italy were sold and closed.[24][25] Finally, in 2004, the Comdirect Bank sold its British subsidiary, too.[26]

From then on, the Comdirect Bank exclusively focused on its home market in Germany.[27] The company accelerated the expansion of its product range and, in particular, cared more about customer advisory services.[28] The new strategy stabilized the business.[29] The first dividend was distributed in 2004 and in 2005,[30] the German retail banking of American Express was acquired, which helped to grow the customer base significantly.[31]

To profit more from the performance of the Comdirect Bank, the Commerzbank increased its investment to almost 80% in June 2005.[32] The group purchased the remaining share from T-Online International.[33]

Even during the global financial crisis from 2007, the business remained stable; the Comdirect Bank profited from the increase in transactions in securities trading.[34]

In 2009, the Comdirect Bank acquired the European Bank for Financial Services (ebase) from the Commerzbank,[35] doubling the number of managed securities accounts.[36] At the same time, the bank extended its position in financial services and asset management.[36] During the following years, the Comdirect Bank repositioned the European Bank for Financial Services as a business-to-business bank.[37] In July 2018, comdirect agreed to sell ebase to London-based financial technology provider FNZ Group to focus more on the core business and completed the sale in July 2019.[38][39]

In 2016, the Comdirect Bank announced the acquisition of the Onvista Group.[40] Both the Onvista Bank and Onvista Media, operator of a high-reach financial portal, became part of the Comdirect Bank.[41] With this investment, the Comdirect Bank strengthened securities trading and financial information business at the same time.[42] While the Onvista Bank merged with the Comdirect Bank, Onvista Media continued operations as a subsidiary.[43]

In recent years, the Comdirect Bank invested heavily in digital technologies. For example, the company published the first online banking app with support for accounts from other institutions.[44] It launched the "startup garage" for financial technology startups.[45][46] The company was the first bank in Germany to publish an Amazon Alexa skill, for example, and later added support for Google Home.[47] The Comdirect Bank also launched a robo-advisor named Cominvest.[48]

In late 2019, Commerzbank entered into talks with Petrus Advisers to buy its 7.5% stake in Comdirect and take over the entire online bank.[49]