Clifford Chance has advised Bremer Kreditbank (BKB) on its merger with Oldenburgische Landesbank (OLB), Germany's largest private regional bank in terms of total assets, number of staff and branch network. In future, the merged bank will do business as OLB, and the BKB brand will be discontinued. The move had been approved by the general meetings of both banks in mid-August. On 31 August 2018 the merger was then entered in the commercial register.

Clifford Chance had already provided legal advice to BKB last year on the acquisition of majority shareholding in OLB and the public takeover of further shares of minority shareholders as well as on its capital increase and the subsequent squeeze-out of OLB minority shareholders.

The Clifford Chance team advising Bremer Kreditbank comprised partner Christian Vogel (Düsseldorf), Markus Stephanblome and Thomas Krecek (both Frankfurt) as well as associates Maria Luisa Köhler and Ribana Piontek (both Düsseldorf) (all Corporate) as well as partner Marc Benzler and senior associate Christian Hissnauer (both Financial Regulation), partner Sebastian Maerker and senior associate Christian Köhler (both Banking), partner Thorsten Sauerhering and counsel Dominik Engl (both Tax) as well as partner Stefan Simon and senior associate Christopher Fischer (both Employment) (all Frankfurt).