Germany's leading commercial bankers have called for radical reforms to corporate governance practices in the Federal Republic, ahead of the publication this week of a report by a government-appointed commission.

Rolf Breuer, chairman of Deutsche Bank, said he would like to see reforms to the structure of company boards and to the lengthy annual general meetings in Germany, which can sometimes last a whole day or even more. Breuer, who was speaking at the European Corporate Finance Convention in Munich, also said that listed companies should come up with their own corporate governance principles and publish them.