By Valentina Za, Tom Sims and Andreas Rinke MILAN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) -German Chancellor Olaf Scholz slammed as "an unfriendly attack" UniCredit's move to become the biggest investor in rival Commerzbank with a potential 21% stake,

Italy’s UniCredit moved to buy another big chunk of Commerzbank, shrugging off German opposition to a possible takeover and upping the ante in its attempt to create a European banking champion with nearly $1.

Italian bank UniCredit ( OTCPK:UNCFF) ( OTCPK:UNCRY) said Monday it increased its stake in Commerzbank ( OTCPK:CRZBF) ( OTCPK:CRZBY) to around 21% through financial instruments and submitted an application to own up to 29.9% of the German lender.