FRANKFURT - A meeting between Commerzbank and UniCredit bankers on Friday will be held virtually in the morning, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The meeting is a first round of talks between the two banks as the Italian lender presses for a possible tie-up and Commerzbank hones its defence.

It was not immediately clear which executives from the banks would be present, although insiders have said UniCredit's chief Andrea Orcel would not be there.

Commerzbank's designated CEO Bettina Orlopp told a financial conference in London on Thursday that the two banks would meet to "exchange views" now that UniCredit was a shareholder.

It is a first encounter between Germany and Italy's No. 2 banks since UniCredit earlier this month revealed it had bought a 9% stake in Commerzbank, said it planned to buy more shares and pressed for discussions to explore a tie-up.

Shares of Commerzbank were 1.1% higher in early trade, coming on top of a nearly 7% gain on Thursday.

(Reporting by Tom Sims, writing by Miranda Murray, editing by Thomas Seythal, Friederike Heine and Tomasz Janowski)