German Chancellor Olaf Scholz slammed as "an unfriendly attack" UniCredit's move to become the biggest investor in rival Commerzbank with a potential 21% stake, marking growing hostility towards the Italian bank.

UniCredit acquired the additional Commerzbank shares through financial instruments and has submitted a request to boost the holding to up to 29.9%. The German government, a major shareholder of Commerzbank,

Italy's UniCredit defied Germany's defence of Commerzbank by using derivative contracts on Monday to raise its potential stake in the German bank close to 21%, while waiting for regulatory approval to go above 9.