Rolf Breuer, chief executive of Deutsche Bank and president of Bundesverbandes deutscher Banken (BdB), the National Association of German Banks, said a new corporate governance code would put Germany at a disadvantage as a location for international businesses.

Breuer said one of the reasons for this was the legally-binding collective principle, which means the board members of a company can only run it jointly, a report in Handelsblatt said. Breuer disagrees with the principle, which assumes that all board members would be interested in taking on responsibility for everything.