The German government on Thursday called on UniCredit chief Andrea Orcel to drop the Italian lender's bid to take over German banking giant Commerzbank "We expect UniCredit to abandon its takeover attempt.

A German finance ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday that the government remains opposed to a possible takeover bid by UniCredit for Commerzbank , after the Italian bank took a bigger stake in its German competitor.

Berlin and German bank Commerzbank both expressed their dissatisfaction on Wednesday after UniCredit said it had performed operations to double its stake in the German lender to take it up to around 20%.