Deutsche Bank chief executive Mr Rolf Breuer said today his bank is not talking with Barclays about a merger.
"We are not holding merger talks with Barclays," Mr Breuer told journalists at conference on Frankfurt's Neuer Markt for growth stocks.
German paper Welt am Sonntaghad reported Deutsche Bank was in early talks about a merger of equals with Barclays, Britain's fourth-largest bank. It cited no sources and had no further details about the talks.
The newspaper repeated comments made by Mr Breuer that he aimed to raise the number of private customers at the bank to about 20 million from about 11 million and said he would need to make a purchase to achieve that.
Shares showed little obvious reaction to the report, with Deutsche Bank weakening 2.2 per cent at euro 74.26 by 2 p.m. tracking a 2 per cent fall on the benchmark DAX index.
Barclays was barely changed at £20.83, outperforming the FTSE 100, which shed 1 per cent.
Mr Breuer said his bank continued to talk to German rival Commerzbank - itself the subject of intense takeover speculation - about cooperation in mortgage banking. "This is part of our strategy," he said.