Commerzbank on Monday became the first commercial lender in Germany to accept government cash, while several other European banks reported poor earnings.

The turmoil that has rocked the United States banking system spread to Europe on Monday, buffeting institutions in at least four countries with a chain of new failures.

Deutsche Bank is poised to announce on Friday that it will buy a controlling stake in Postbank, a relatively modest but profitable German institution.

Investors dumped shares of Commerzbank on Monday, a day after the lender sealed an agreement to acquire Dresdner Bank, on concern that it had overpaid.

Under the terms of the deal, Commerzbank will initially acquire 60.2 percent of Dresdner, one of the oldest German banks, and will buy the remainder by the end of next year.

With the planned sale of Dresdner Bank to Commerzbank, Allianz is set to abandon the biggest experiment in German finance of the last decade in favor of a global trend: focusing on core competencies.