"The result is open," Merkel said of the talks. "It is not our job to intervene with judgements before the talks have been completed," she added during a question and answer session with German lawmakers.

Asked about the risk to taxpayers of any merger, she said: "Banks are subject to a European supervision regime, we have German financial market monitoring and everything that happens with mergers will take very good account of systemic risks."

(Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Madeline Chambers)