Are you wondering how to open a German trading account at Commerzbank?
Commerzbank’s sign up process is in German, so we created this step-by-step tutorial to guide you through the application. Click on each screenshot in order to enlarge it. You can also use Google Chrome and its automatic translation feature, then the Commerzbank application form is automatically translated live while you are filling it out.
If you would like to read more about the benefits of the Commerzbank trading account and see potential fees, go to our Commerzbank overview page.
The first step is to go to Commerzbank and click the button “Jetzt Depot eröffnen”:
Look at the screenshot to see the English meaning of each field. Geburtsland is country of birth and Staatsangehörigkeit is your nationality. Your name needs to be provided exactly like it is in your passport.
American citizens or people that have a connection (e.g. Green Card) to the United States cannot open a trading account with Commerzbank. A U.S. connection exists, for example, if you have U.S. citizenship, a U.S. green card, a residence or shipping address in the U.S., a U.S. telephone number, or are subject to U.S. tax.
Provide your personal address, which has to be the address that you registered with the local municipality. This address needs to be confirmed later in the identification process. “Wohnhaft seit” means since when you live there. You can optionally provide your tax ID as well (“Steuer-ID“) and the last checkbox asks you if you are currently taxable in other countries as well (e.g. USA).
Provide your business / employment details. For “Beruf” you can either select “wirtschaftlich selbständiger Handwerker“, which means “self-employed craftsman” (e.g. mechanic, roofer, electrician, carpenter, among others). Or you can select “wirtschaftlich selbständige Privatperson“, which would be any other business type or profession. Once you selected the “Beruf“, you need to select the “Position“, which is a business category in this case. See translations below. For every “Position“, you then have to select the appropriate industry (“Branche“). For example, if you own a book shop it would be “Einzelhandel” for “Position” and then it would be “book shop” (“Facheinzelhandel mit Büchern“) for “Branche“.
Position (German)
- Bau, Kraftfahrzeughandel, Kfz – Reparaturen und Tankstellen
- Beratung für Unternehmen, Industriestiftungen und Interessenvertretungen
- Bergbau; Gewinnung von Steinen und Erden
- Einzelhandel, Warenhäuser und Supermärkte
- Erziehung, Unterricht und Sozialwesen,Wohnungswesen
- Gastgewerbe, Transport, Verkehr und Touristik
- Handel, Versicherungsgewerbe, Gesundheitswesen
- Handelsvermittlung, Großhandel mit Grundstoffen, Maschinen und Nahrungsmitteln
- Kultur, Sport, Unterhaltung und sonstige persönliche Dienstleistungen
- Land-, Forst- u. Fischwirtschaft
- Nachrichtenübermittlung
- Recycling u. Wiederverwertung; Versorgungswirtschaft und Entsorgungsdienstleistungen
- Verarbeitung: Chemie, Glas, Keramik, Steine und Erden
- Verarbeitung: Ernährung, Tabak, Getränke, Textil, Bekleidung und Leder
- Verarbeitung: Holz, Papier, Verlage, Druck, Mineralöl und Kunststoff
- Verarbeitung: Maschinenbau, Armaturen, Büromaschinen, Datenverarbeitungsgeräte, Elektro, Lampen und Leuchten
- Verarbeitung: Metall und Metallerzeugnisse
- Verarbeitung: Möbel, Schmuck, Sport, Spiel und Musikinstrumente
- Verarbeitung: Rundfunk- und Nachrichtentechnik, Medizin- und Regelungstechnik, Optik, Fahrzeugbau
- Wohnungswesen, Vermietung von beweglichen Sachen, geschlossene Immobilienfonds, Datenverarbeitung und Forschung
English Translation:
- Construction, motor vehicle trade, motor vehicle repairs and service stations
- Consulting for companies, industrial foundations and interest groups
- Mining; quarrying and quarrying of stone and earth
- Retail trade, department stores and supermarkets
- Education and social services, housing
- Hotels and restaurants, transport, traffic and tourism
- Trade, insurance, health care
- Wholesale of food, beverages and tobacco, Wholesale of food, beverages and tobacco, Wholesale of food, beverages and tobacco
- Culture, sports, entertainment and other personal services
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing
- Communications
- Recycling and recovery; utilities and waste management services
- Processing: chemicals, glass, ceramics, stone and earths
- Processing: food, tobacco, beverages, textiles, clothing and leather
- Processing: wood, paper, publishing, printing, petroleum and plastics
- Processing: mechanical engineering, fittings, office machines, data processing equipment, electrical, lamps and luminaires
- Processing: metal and metal products
- Processing: furniture, jewelry, sports, games and musical instruments
- Processing: radio and communications engineering, medical and control engineering, optics, vehicle construction
- Housing, renting of movable property, closed-end real estate funds, data processing and research
If you want to open your account online, you need to provide your phone number and email address.
Now you can set your username and password for the Commerzbank online banking. The username needs to contain 8 to 50 characters and at least one number or special character @_-. You can only use the same character twice right next to each other and cannot use ß, umlauts, or space.
Estimate your monthly incoming transfers (“Geldeingänge pro Monat”) and your cash withdrawals or cash deposits (“Bargeld-Transaktionen pro Monat”). Tick the checkbox if you are regularly sending or receiving money from abroad via bank transfer.
Now you need to download and acknowledge the information brochure about risk classes of different financial products.
After that you need to indicate for which financial products you have some sort of experience, e.g. trading stocks, and how many transactions you made in that product class in the last 10 years.
Product classes and English translations:
- Aktienfonds, Aktien, ungehebelte Zertifikate (z. B. Indexzertifikate oder Aktienanleihen), Alternative Investments – Equity funds, shares, unleveraged certificates (e.g. index certificates or reverse convertibles), alternative investments
- Gemischte Fonds, Anleihen und Rentenfonds in Fremdwährung, Wandel- und Optionsanleihen, Genussscheine – Mixed funds, bonds and bond funds in foreign currency, convertible bonds and bonds with warrants, participation certificates
- Andere Euro-Anleihen, Rentenfonds, Garantie- oder Wertsicherungsfonds – Other euro bonds, bond funds, guarantee funds or capital preservation funds
- Anleihen von Banken und öffentlichen Schuldnern (Euro), Pfandbriefe, Geldmarktnahe Fonds, offene Immobilienfonds – Bonds issued by banks and public-sector borrowers (euro), covered bonds, near-money market funds, open-end real estate funds
- Geldmarktfonds (Euro) – Money market fund (Euro)
You need to have knowledge of at least one product class in order to open the trading account online. Otherwise, you have to go to one of Commerzbank’s local branches and talk to an advisor.
How would you rate your knowledge and/or experience with products on the capital market?
- Basic knowledge and/or experience: Equity(-funds), bond(-funds) and mixed funds
- Advanced knowledge and/or experience: Equity (funds), bond (funds) and mixed funds, open-ended real estate funds, reverse convertibles and discount certificates.
- Extensive knowledge and/or experience: Equity (stock) funds, bond (bond) funds and mixed funds, open-ended real estate funds, reverse convertibles and discount certificates, participation certificates, leverage certificates and warrants.
A clearing account is required to book all payments in connection with investments (e.g. purchase price, sales proceeds, income). This account is maintained as a “clearing account Plus” at Commerzbank. Please indicate which existing bank account (IBAN and BIC) you would like to connect with the clearing account. This account can be with Commerzbank or any other German bank.
You need to agree to the terms and conditions and agree that Commerzbank will send you the contract details.
Agreeing to the marketing emails or calls is optional.
Your provided data is checked and you will see a summary page where you can also click on “Angaben ändern” in order to change any information.
You need to download the documents (“Unterlagen herunterladen”) in order to get to the next step of clicking on “Antrag erstellen” at the bottom of the page.
Click on “Antrag erstellen” to send your trading account application. You are almost done now.
You can now see your bank account details already. But before you can use it, you need to complete the identification process. First, download your application by clicking on “Antrag herunterladen“, or alternatively let Commerzbank send it to your email address.
You can confirm your identity via smartphone or tablet, by going to a post office, or by going into a Commerzbank branch (see above).
If you want to confirm your identity by going to a post office or to a Commerzbank branch, you need to print a certain page. In your application download, you will find the page above with your PostIdent-Coupon. You need to print only that page and go to either a local Commerzbank branch, or to a local post office (Deutsche Post). They will then check your passport and confirm your identity to Commerzbank. Commerzbank will also offer an online video identification process soon.
After 1-2 business days, you will be able to use your new bank account.
