The talks about a merger of Deutsche Bank’s asset management branch and that of UBS in Switzerland have stalled. The Bloomberg news agency reports this based on insiders. Stumbling block appeared to be the question of who would get the majority stake in the combination.

A combination of DWS, as Deutsche Bank’s listed asset management division is called, and UBS’s asset management department, would manage around € 1.4 trillion, making it one of the world’s largest asset managers. The merged entity could achieve economies of scale due to that size, which now helps to put margins in asset management under pressure.

Deutsche Bank is also said to have slowed down with the merger of DWS, where it holds a majority stake. The bank, which recently saw merger talks with industry counterpart Commerzbank go wrong, would have wanted to keep its options open longer.