Mehmet Dalman, head of investment banking at Commerzbank, plans to take Germany's fourth-largest bank further into hedge funds with the launch of an incubator fund staffed by its proprietary traders.

Dalman insists the move is the source of distorted rumours that he plans to leave Commerzbank and set up a hedge fund business on his own, possibly backed by Richard Desmond, the Commerzbank-backed owner of the Express newspaper empire.