Commerzbank has said it is raising its provision for bad debt, just one day after pulling the plug on KirchMedia, the third major German insolvency in as many weeks, as part of a consortium of German banks.

Commerzbank's exposure to KirchMedia is thought to be about €350m ($307m). Klaus-Peter Mueller, chief executive of Commerzbank, said: &quotAfter €927m last year, we assume that we will need to set aside more than €1bn in bad debt provision.&quot