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Commerzbank to close accounts of 400 Luxembourg clients - report

BERLIN (Reuters) - The Luxembourg arm of Germany's Commerzbank is closing the accounts of 400 customers suspected of tax evasion after prosecutors launched an investigation into Germany's second biggest bank last month, media reported on Tuesday.

The 400 customers failed to respond to repeated appeals by the bank to report themselves to the tax authorities, according to the report by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily and the WDR and NDR regional broadcasters.

The report said Commerzbank would end services for the accounts from April 30 and block credit cards, while safety deposit boxes must be cleared as soon as possible and loans repaid by May 15.

The report said Commerzbank Luxembourg managed billions of euros in 19,250 customer accounts in 2008, when the bank decided to stop its offshore business, but that number has since fallen to around 4,000.

Commerzbank declined to comment on the report.

Last month, the bank said it was fully cooperating with the investigation by German prosecutors, which it said concerned old cases that date back 10 years or more.

German prosecutors have raided several banks in recent years in connection with tax evasion investigations.

Luxembourg is already in the spotlight over tax following allegations last year that more than 300 companies had secured secret deals to slash their tax bills.

(Reporting by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Gareth Jones)