The competitiveness of the financial sector has a higher priority for the FDP politician than it did under his predecessors.
(Photo: IMAGO/photothek)
Frankfurt The Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner has criticized the intensive banking regulation in Europe. “In international comparison, the regulations in Europe and Germany were particularly extensive and in some cases particularly strict,” said the FDP politician at Deutsche Bank’s digital New Year’s reception. “In Anglo-Saxon countries, institutes were therefore able to develop better, show more growth, show more profitability, develop more resilience.”
In addition to one’s own management mistakes, which can occur in every industry, every institute and every company, the regulatory framework in Europe “certainly contributed to the fact that the development over the past ten years has not happened as much as possible and necessary”. The federal government is now working on that.
In the past, Lindner had repeatedly adopted a more bank-friendly tone than former Finance Minister Olaf Schäuble. Schäuble was Federal Minister of Finance from 2009 to 2017 immediately after the great financial crisis and during the euro crisis. During this time, the scandals of many banks during the financial crisis and the behavior of the banks during the euro debt crisis led to a strong distancing of politicians from the financial sector.
Only under Schäuble’s successor Olaf Scholz (SPD) was there a gentle rapprochement. However, Scholz did not position himself as clearly as Lindner. “In some phases of recent history, the banks were spoken of very critically. I haven’t forgotten that,” said the FDP politician at the purely digital event. But that failed to recognize the importance of the banks, savings banks and cooperative institutes for our welfare as a whole.
“We need strong, efficient banks,” said Lindner. Because banks would ensure financing and liquidity in times of crisis. That is not primarily the task of the state. The federal government has therefore “adjusted” its political priorities. In the past, financial stability and consumer protection had top priority, while the competitiveness of Germany’s banking center seemed secondary.
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“The priority is to reconnect financial stability with consumer protection and competitiveness. The competitiveness of the banks and financial center is also one of my political goals,” he said.
Lindner followed up his words with the first actions. In Brussels, he spoke out against the EU Finance Commissioner Mairead McGuinness’s plan to ban commissions for financial advisors. Together with France, Lindner is committed to reviving the securitization market. And in the reform package for banks currently being discussed in Brussels, with which further parts of an internationally agreed set of rules (“Basel III”) are to be implemented, Lindner had also advocated certain easing.
In an open letter, bank supervisors had warned against taking a special European approach when implementing the Basel III reform. And according to Andrea Enria, the chief banking supervisor of the European Central Bank (ECB), the institutes can also do a lot themselves to improve their competitiveness. He pointed out that European banks that had given up unprofitable lines of business and concentrated on profitable business areas had done better overall than other institutions.
More: ECB criticizes low investments by banks in digitization