If all goes according to plan, early next year Commerzbank will pay a dividend for the first time since the bank was engulfed by the crisis.

That would be a symbolic moment in the rehabilitation of the bank in which the German government was forced to invest €18.2 billion during the turmoil after the Lehman Brothers collapse.

It would also be a welcome change of fortune for Commerzbank's shareholders, who have seen their holdings diluted by capital raisings. According to analysts at Citi, Commerzbank has raised $17.4 billion in equity since 2010 – more than its current market value.

Despite a tough half-decade, however, there are signs Commerzbank – Germany’s second-biggest bank by assets and a key lender to the army of small and medium-sized companies that make up the backbone of the country’s economy – is edging back to health.

A four-year plan launched in 2012 to revamp Commerzbank’s retail bank and jettison unwanted assets is beginning to bear fruit.

Operating profits in the retail division nearly doubled in 2014 to €420 million, within range of the 2016 target of €500 million. And Commerzbank has halved its pile of non-core assets. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015