It's as if Dresdner Kleinwort never existed

Commerzbank released its second quarter results today and they are not entirely beautiful. Overall, the bank reported a net loss of €746m for the quarter and there were €1.8bn of first-half charges related to its 'portfolio' of asset backed securities.

With the exception of the charges and restructuring costs, the contribution of the London-based Dresdner Kleinwort carcass wasn't particularly evident. Yes, trading and capital markets results turned positive for the first time in more than a year, but Commerz put this down to "our strong market position in Germany," rather than any input from the UK.

Like other continental European banks, Commerz, which is now 25% owned by the German government, is very unlikely to pay generous bonuses to any of its remaining investment bankers this year.

Although overall compensation costs at Commerz are up nearly 60%, this has more to do with big contributions to the German pension fund than rewarding traders for their return to profitability: the bank said accruals for performance related pay were down.

Earlier this week, Commerzbank was obliged to pay 10.8m in bonuses to senior Dresdner bankers who took it to court after it attempted to renege on contractual bonus and severance agreements for Dresdner staff.

In the circumstances and after last year's big losses it's likely to be glad to see the back of many of its former London employees.

However, their absence may be having an impact. "In the conference call, they mentioned that commissions were lower because of the closure of Dresdner's London equities business," says Keefe Bruyette & Woods analyst Matthew Clarke.