The rate of turnover within the Commerzbank board remains high. As was announced on the sidelines of the annual financial press conference, the institute is losing another top manager, Jörg Oliveri del Castillo-Schulz.

During the supervisory board meeting held the previous day, the board member responsible for IT architecture informed the board that he does not intend to renew his contract. Commerzbank must find a successor by October 1st.

The Palatinate native with the long Italian-German surname took office just two years ago as the successor to Jörg Hessenmüller, who stumbled over the failed outsourcing of the securities settlement business to HSBC. Normally, new Commerzbank board members are appointed with three-year contracts. However, according to the bank, Oliveri del Castillo-Schulz entered into the extended contract of his predecessor, so he will not complete a regular term in office.

It is rumoured that the reason for his withdrawal is a lack of support within his own team. This wouldn't be surprising. Many within the bank felt it was highly unfair that Hessenmüller had to leave due to a project that was initially orchestrated by his predecessor, Frank Annuscheit. Especially since the reversal of the decision to outsource securities settlement was probably less attributable to technical implementation challenges than initially presumed.

In fact, the decision to bring the business back in-house was more of a strategic one. This move stemmed from the fact that the securities sector experienced increased volume and appeal during the prolonged low-interest-rate environment, surpassing the expectations of the previous top management.

Not everyone in his department may have appreciated the intention with which Oliveri del Castillo-Schulz embarked. The 63-year-old aimed to decrease the pace at which the new, highly creative teams of the "Delivery Organization" – thanks to their agile working methods – launched new projects. "Stop starting, start finishing – that must be our motto now", he told Börsen-Zeitung at the time.

To some of the IT experts at Commerzbank, who were just embarking on their journey into the future, he may have seemed like a spoilsport. The typical management consultant who measured the developers' creativity with the business calculator and pulled the plug on some nice projects. What investors appreciate usually finds less esteem internally.

According to a spokesperson for the bank, the supervisory board has already initiated a process for filling the vacancy. It is an orderly process where both internal and external candidates are being assessed. As the spokesperson emphasized, the bank is currently striving for a balanced gender ratio in the top management.

Therefore, if available, a suitable female manager would likely have better chances against male competitors. Given this scenario, it's quite possible that an external female candidate might emerge as the chosen one. The bank, which once prided itself on always promoting its CEOs from within, has become a regular customer of headhunters.

Allegedly, the possibility of extending the contract of CEO Manfred Knof, which expires in 2025, was also discussed at the supervisory board meeting. Rumours have been circulating for a while that the manager, who took on the role as a turnaround specialist, is considering stepping down. Given the many changes at the top, an early extension of the CEO contract would certainly not have been a bad signal, especially considering the historically good results.

Knof, however, didn't reveal anything about his future plans, neither to the press nor to his supervisory board. At least in the event of his resignation, there is an internal successor ready in the person of Chief Financial Officer Bettina Orlopp. Even before Knof's appointment, she was considered a possible candidate for the CEO position. With her promotion to deputy, the supervisory board has already indicated that they are unlikely to pass her over again in the event of another reshuffle.

The gaps in the board have recently been filled noticeably often with managers from Austria. In addition to risk board member Bernhard Spalt, who took office at the beginning of the year, and retail board member Thomas Schaufler (in office since December 2021), personnel manager Sabine Minarsky (January 2023) also hails from the Alpine country.