The bonus-related legal dispute brought by more than 100 former Dresdner Kleinwort bankers against their former employer and new owner Commerzbank looks set to go to a full trial after a London judge today refused to entirely dismiss the case.

Lawyers for the claimants had told the judge earlier this month, at a hearing where Commerzbank was seeking summary dismissal of the claims, that an announcement to staff about the bonus pool in August 2008 by then-Dresdner Kleinwort chief executive Stefan Jentzsch marked a "binding promise" and that subsequent letters to staff outlining individual awards in December that year "crystallised" that promise.