"The number is wrong," a spokesman said. "It is completely fabricated."

Allianz is making efforts to increase productivity through automation and digitalisation, which could eventually reduce the number of jobs needed, the spokesman said. But there is no program with the aim of cutting jobs.

A cut of 5,000 jobs would be about 20 percent of the jobs the company employs in Germany, Manager Magazin said in its report, which cited unnamed company sources.

(Reporting by Tom Sims; editing by Ludwig Burger and Jason Neely)