Higher interest rates helped German lender Commerzbank achieve record profits last year, with net income rising to more than €2.2 billion ($2.4 billion) in 2023 from €1.4 billion in the previous year. “We will not rest on our laurels from 2023,” Commerzbank chief executive Manfred Knof said on Thursday. He added that the bank would “increase the result again in the current year” and prove that it can “grow profitably even in a less favourable interest rate environment.” The profits topped the bank’s previous record from 2007 of €1.9 billion, which came before financial crisis threw the bank in…