More bad news for German banks as further losses and closures suggest worse is to come

After last year's announcement that more than 27,000 jobs were in danger at four major German banks, more financial institutions find themselves victims of the slide after more bad news. More bad news for German banks as further losses and closures suggest worse is to come. At the end of last year, the main players in the German banking world - Commerzbank, Deutsche, Dresdner and HypoVereinsbank AG - released the grim news that more than 27,000 employees would lose their jobs in a bid to save the companies from potential ruin. On Friday, further bad news for bankers surfaced as HypoVereinsbank AG announced the first operating loss in its history and news broke of the planned closure of 21 branches of Sparkasse Berlin. HypoVereinsbank showed the true extent of the current weakness of the capital markets by presenting an operating loss, which would have been accompanied by a net loss had it not been for exceptional gains. In its half-yearly report, HypoVereinsbank, the second largest in Germany, recorded an operating loss of 89 million euros ($89.4 million) after profits of 330 million in the first quarter and 286 million in the second quarter of 2002.