Commerzbank’s securities lending and collateral management business is being “realigned and adapted”, the firm said on Tuesday, in response to "changing market conditions."

The eastern European lender said it had decided to stop offering certain products and services in the US, as they no longer form part of its local strategic offering for clients.

“This affects the securities lending business and structured financing solutions,” it added. 

Around 100 back office support jobs will be axed in New York, the bank confirmed. Job cuts in the front office will be in the low double digits.

The process is expected to be completed in 2018, with the majority of the redundancies taking place by the end of this year.

Commerzbank also confirmed it will exit the dividend arbitrage, or 'cum/cum' business, after coming under fire in Germany for facilitating the borrowing of foreign investor’s shares in a company in the run-up to a dividend payment.

The practice takes advantage of a loophole in German law that allows domestic investors to claim a credit on taxes on dividends that foreign investors cannot claim.

The firm's exit from the business "underscores the commitment to its position that all businesses must not only contribute to the real economy but also be socially acceptable," a statement said.

"We are deliberately walking away from the corresponding contribution to earnings.”

The comments were made in the bank's half-year results statement, which revealed a slump in profits and warned the current business environment could continue to hamper its performance.

Pre-tax profits at the bank fell to €575m ($645m) for the first half of 2016, down from €1bn the year before.

Its equities and commodities unit was hit by high volatility in the stock market led to a lot of uncertainty in customer business and a sharp fall in trading volumes.

The volatility in the global capital markets in the first half of 2016 also had an adverse impact on structured products business for institutional customers.

This was in contrast to the previous year, when the very benign stock market environment had provided support.