German lender Commerzbank has announced plans to reduce its workforce by 4,300 people as part of its latest strategic programme.

Apart from 4,300 lay-offs, Commerzbank plans to add around 2,000 full-time positions in strategic areas. Accordingly, its overall workforce will drop by nearly 2,300 full-time positions.

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In a statement, the bank said: “The details will be worked out over the next few months in consultation with the employee representative committees.

“The aim would be to implement the planned headcount reduction as socially responsible as possible.”

The lender also aims to shut down 200 branches in Germany, following which, it will operate around 800 offices in the country.

The new measures are proposed by the board of managing directors under the new draft strategy dubbed Commerzbank 5.0. The strategy, which is now submitted to the supervisory board for consideration, seeks to improve the lender’s long-term sustainability.

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Earlier this year, talks of a potential merger of Commerzbank with Deutsche Bank failed.

Overall, the draft strategy will involve an investment of nearly €1.6bn including €750m in digitalisation and IT infrastructure overhaul. The remaining amount is earmarked for restructuring.

The strategy also includes acquiring the outstanding stake of comdirect bank Aktiengesellschaft (Comdirect). Commerzbank already holds 82% stake in this online brokerage unit.

Furthermore, it plans to divest the majority stake in its Polish subsidiary mbank, subject to regulatory approvals. The proceeds received from the sale will be used to accelerate the implementation of its strategy and associated investments.

These measures will be at a meeting of the supervisory board later this month. However, the board is yet to finalise any of these proposed measures.