Commerzbank boss Manfred Knof is about to reach an agreement with Allianz on a new long-term cooperation agreement. The existing agreement expires in 2023. According to information from Süddeutsche Zeitung Allianz pays a high one-time payment for the extension. The so-called shelf money should amount to 150 million euros to 200 million euros. The term shelf money comes from the retail trade and describes payments by the manufacturer to the retailer – in return for their items being included in the range.
Then there are the substantial commissions for the insurance policies that are sold by the bank. They are likely to bring Commerzbank in well over a billion euros over the period of probably ten years. These payments are made by customers who take out insurance through the bank. Commerzbank and Allianz did not want to comment.
The deal between bank boss Knof and Allianz Germany boss Klaus-Peter Röhler is not without piquancy. Knof was Röhler’s predecessor at Allianz until 2017 and left the insurer after significant differences with CEO Oliver Bäte about strategy. Apparently that didn’t stop him from negotiating with the Alliance now.
Commerzbank boss Manfred Knof.
(Photo: Tobias Hase / dpa)
From his time at the Munich-based group, Knof knows exactly how keen insurers are on cooperation agreements with banks: he can fully exploit the market. In the current round, several insurers are said to have been interested, including Axa and Talanx / HDI.
In 2020, Knof already demonstrated the feat of generating millions in revenue with a pure contract extension. At that time he was board member for private customer business at Deutsche Bank. For the extension of the contracts with the Talanx subsidiary PB Versicherung and with Zurich from 2023, Deutsche Bank collected shelf money of 110 million euros and 300 million euros last year.
Almost all insurers are looking for large banking partners for sales. Because the market is very limited. The savings banks have agreements with public insurers such as Versicherungskammer Bayern, Provinzial or VGH, even if one or the other savings bank likes to do business with external partners. The Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken mainly work together with their own insurance company R + V.
The fact that Allianz is now ready to pay Commerzbank more than 150 million euros is also related to the coalition agreement that has just been published between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP. Because the Greens could not prevail with demands for a commission ban for life insurance. Consumer advocates criticize that commission advice – which is always paid for by the customer via the insurance premium – leads to incorrect advice because the seller prefers to sell contracts with the highest commission, which are not necessarily in the best interests of the customer. Green and consumer advocates prefer fee advice, which is unpopular with insurers, where customers pay the fee themselves and the policies are cheaper.