And analysts continue to salivate at the prospect of a tie-up with Dresdner Bank, a Frankfurt rival.
In particular, it focuses attention on Dresdner Bank, hitherto Germany's second largest, and Commerzbank, which ranked third.
But Dresdner Bank, owned by Allianz, a big insurer, has shown that huge amounts can be shifted in this way.
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Just over two years ago, Mr Breuer wanted to ditch retail banking after a planned merger with Dresdner Bank, also in Frankfurt.
The deal faltered mainly because Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank, which had provided two-thirds of Krupp's DM15 billion war chest, got cold feet.
Combinations like those of Wells Fargo and Wachovia, Lloyds TSB and HBOS, Commerzbank and Dresdner Bank have bloated the biggest institutions, not slimmed them.
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Germany's Allianz listed on the New York stock exchange last year and may be another buyer once it has completed its acquisition of Dresdner Bank.
And is Dresdner Bank, Germany's third-biggest, really going to conclude a merger, after last year's failed attempts with its Frankfurt rivals, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank?
Simon Robertson quit as chairman of Kleinwort Benson after 34 years with the merchant bank, as Germany's Dresdner Bank took more control of its unit.
Also stepping down early is Leonhard Fischer, the head of Dresdner Bank's investment banking and markets division and a director of Allianz, the bank's parent.
Remember, says Klaus Friedrich, chief economist at Dresdner Bank in Frankfurt, that it took the markets an age to accept that low inflation was likely to endure.
After all, it recently signalled that it would not stand in the way of a takeover bid for Dresdner Bank, in which it controls a blocking minority.
At Dresdner Bank, the tax-collectors scalped the bank's leadership: bad publicity created by their raid was the main reason for a messy boardroom coup in December last year.
Furthermore, points out Rainer Schaefer of Dresdner Bank, some big developing countries, such as Brazil and India, have boosted their domestic oil production and are therefore less vulnerable than they used to be.
Many a dose of much-needed consolidation has been blocked by dominant shareholders jealously protecting their stakes Allianz, a huge German insurer with 21% of Dresdner Bank, has consistently helped block a merger with rival Deutsche.
As to reasons for the falling out, analysts pointed to the fact that what was supposed to be a merger of equals had become effectively a takeover of Dresdner by Deutsche: the bigger bank was to have held 60-64% of the new entity, which would be called just "Deutsche Bank", with Dresdner Bank share holders owning the other 36-40%.
That was deeply misleading: three weeks later, it emerged that Hansgeorg Hofmann, the head of Dresdner's investment bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, had turned himself in to the tax authorities.
After all, Dresdner bought the bank for good reason: its own paltry attempts at investment banking had become woefully inadequate.
The Russian government recently hired investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein to value the natural gas operations of Yukos with an eye toward putting them up for auction.
It is an open secret that, before turning to the domestic courtship of Dresdner, Deutsche Bank tried to buy in France and Italy, only to be rebuffed by nationalistically minded governments.
Dresdner Kleinwort is being merged with Dresdner's corporate bank, taking over its top 2, 000 customers.
Dresdner's investment bank would be an obvious candidate for sale, were there a buyer.
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Dresdner's investment bank will not be the only one to slim down riskier activities such as proprietary trading.
Allianz thought it had its product and distribution problems solved in March 2000 when Deutsche Bank and Dresdner announced plans to merge and bring Allianz into the deal.
For its part, Deutsche Bank accused Dresdner of inflexibility.
Deutsche and Dresdner aimed to create a bank that could rival US investment bank giants such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.
Peter Tasker, an analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, an investment bank, points out that it will be no easier for foreigners to buy Japanese firms.
Enel's ratio of 800 customers per employee compares poorly to, say, Spain's utility average of 2, 000, says Chris Rowland of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, an investment bank.
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