FOCUS Online : Mr Wuermeling, the banks in Germany, it is not really good. For 2020, the prospect of improvement?

Joachim Wuermeling: no. The pressure will remain: The interest rates are still low. The economic prospects are more likely to behaviour, and the structural change is progressing.

FOCUS Online It acts as if setting the banks on it.

where : I can't confirm. Two or three years ago, many certainly had the hope that the good old times come back. But in the meantime, the banks have heard the shot, we see a massive conversion. Reuters/Tim brake Meier Bundesbank Executive Board member Joachim Wuermeling For the Person

Bank supervisors, Joachim Wuermeling, 59, has been sitting for 2016 on the Board of the Bundesbank and monitored by the German monetary institutions.

"There is a serious restructuring,"

FOCUS Online you mean store closures and a decline in investment banking?

where: , Among others. In large banks there are serious restructuring. Savings banks strengthen their Central units – for example, the common financial IT. In addition, we recognize the efforts, a Central savings Bank building. Also in the case of the cooperative banks, we see the mergers and the opening of joint branches with the savings banks. It does a whole lot really, but there is a Problem.

FOCUS Online : Now it gets exciting.

where: The banks are doing well because their business models to rebuild. But these operationally meaningful measures are unpopular, so they relate to customers, politics and the media a whole lot of spanking for this. In addition, some will not be criticized, what is so very right.

FOCUS Online : For example?

where: In Germany is to give it to too many banks and too many branches. It's not that easy but. It is often neglected the special structure of the German banking landscape: Our savings banks and cooperatives are aware of the regional, that is your job. In addition, some of these are already in motion: Alone in the year 2018 has reduced the number of branches in Germany to seven per cent, in the ten-year comparison as much as 30 percent.

negative interest rates are economically and financially meaningful

FOCUS Online With the passing of negative interest rates as an economic measure to stop little friends.

where: , customers, politicians and the media like the complain, but economically it makes sense. The banks are in a severe quandary. You are trying to eliminate a Problem, cause you elsewhere a new.

FOCUS Online : Where lands actually, the money takes on the Bundesbank by the negative interest rates?

where: The commercial banks received negative interest rates are initially redistributed within the Eurosystem. A part of flows and, ultimately, the profit of the Bundesbank, the we pay to the Ministry of Finance. The bottom line is that it flows in the Federal budget. The Finance Minister wins twice: He gets revenue from negative interest rates to get more money, if he gets capital on the market at a negative interest rate. With the SCC-exchange of letters next to values, and in the short term and the long term Top return on investment! (Partner quote) Here is an exclusive 30-day free trial!

FOCUS Online Must give the banks a negative interest rate to their customers? There are voices that say that it is not right, because the ECB may actually raise no negative interest rates are on the increase. Only the banks do not dare to take action because of fear of reprisals.

where: The ECB is independent and free in the choice of monetary policy instruments to pursue its primary objective of price stability. It is not the only Central Bank that uses even negative interest rates.

prohibition of negative interest rates would be a drastic intervention in price formation,

FOCUS Online : A lawsuit you're facing left?

where: The European court of justice would have to address the issue. Through such a procedure, I would not like to speculate, especially since, to my knowledge, no suit is pending.

FOCUS Online : you are since 2016 the Executive Board of the Bundesbank. It has surprised the development of negative interest rates in your expression?

where: Which had been indicated in the years before. It was already in other countries such as in Sweden. Before the first banks to have introduced in Germany, in fact, negative interest rates, I could imagine the but hardly, even if it is economically consistent.

FOCUS Online : What do you think of claims, to prohibit negative interest rates at commercial banks?

where: This would not be a drastic intervention in the price formation, therefore, is this the right way and brings nothing. The decision of banks, negative interest rates to their customers, is a commercial decision, with all the side effects for attractiveness and customer relationship. As Bank supervisors, we do not intervene in these business decisions.

FOCUS Online A further challenge for the banks, the topic of digitisation is.

where: Not only for the banks but for the banking supervision. So I have to do every day. And we are only at the beginning of the revolution through the digitalization in the financial sector.

Digital evolution: "There is a lot to come to us"

FOCUS Online you my providers, such as Apple , Amazon and Facebook ?

where: Yes. These Big Techs want to guide you through Bank transactions more users to their platforms. Apple Pay or Facebooks Libra, all of these are instruments to bind to the consumer. The Bank's transactions with the customer are for Big Techs usually a free service, a Benefit for the users, so to speak. But this is only one aspect of digital development. It is still a lot to us.

FOCUS Online : How?

where: The question is: the state is still in the future, Lord of the action? We can guarantee financial stability, if the funds flow through global networks and the credit check automatically expires? This can also have an impact on the resilience of the banks.

Libra does not fit in the usual categories

FOCUS Online by crypto-currencies, the Central banks could lose control over the money.

where: these are challenges that we must face. First, however, We have with the Euro is a stable currency that enjoys trust. The potential for crypto-Token is expected to be in countries with a less stable currency, and less well-developed payment systems is greater. But in any case, projects such as Libra, raise a number of legal, regulatory and Supervisory issues that need to be clarified. We see disruption potential, as projects such as Libra are not easy to estimate and does not necessarily fit into the usual categories.

FOCUS Online : Because Facebook is not a Bank?

where: Yes, this is one of the reasons. Libra is also designed as a System entirely new, and not national to regulate at European level so easily. How to prevent a EU citizen in Switzerland, the Euro in Libra to exchange and pay for it? For this, we need internationally coordinated regulation. Also for the users of the System risks, which are perhaps not even aware of.

FOCUS Online : And that would be?

where: In Libra, the legal claim to the Coin at any time in state money back to replace missing, for example. If you have purchased Libra, you are in the worst case, in the platform caught. Also, the value of a Libra can vary. The term "Stable", "Coin", so constructs such as Libra are also known – suggests a reliability that must be demonstrated.

see also: PUSH - guest post - It is progressing with giant steps: Until the next crisis, the cash abolished

During Neubauer climate Ultimatum, shakes Greta head violently FOCUS Online disagreement in the case of climate Activists: While Neubauer Ultimatum your climate, shakes Greta head violently.

vt/ Date Of Update: 31 January 2020, 09:00