Reports indicate that Deutsche Bank is prepared to shut most of Dresdner Bank's securities arm, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, in a bid to save the $28.6bn takeover of Dresdner by its German rival Deutsche.

Late yesterday it emerged that Dresdner chairman Bernhard Walter was insisting on a full integration of the investment banks, but this was strongly opposed by Deutsche chairman Rolf Breuer and its head of investment banking Josef Ackermann.