Peer Steinbrück has some of what he wished for. Surveying a crisis in German banking a year ago, the finance minister urged the creation of stronger institutions "worthy of the biggest and strongest exporter in the world".

Now Commerzbank has taken over Dresdner Bank in Germany's most dramatic banking deal in years, combining the second and third biggest banks to aim its services squarely at the corporate clients whose interests Mr Steinbrück promoted.