Commerzbank Expects Stable Provisions for Ship Loans

Commerzbank, Germany's No. 2 lender, does not expect it will have to put aside more money for bad ship loans in the foreseeable future.

"We expect loan loss provisions on shipping to remain at 2012 levels," Chief Financial Officer Stephan Engels told analysts on a conference call on Thursday following third quarter results that cheered investors.

Commerzbank still has 16 billion euros in ship loans on its books and wants to reduce them to 14 billion euros by 2016.

The shipping industry has been hit hard by the economic downturn and also by overcapacity as a result of new ships ordered during the pre-crisis boom now coming on to the market.