The finance lobby has greater power than other civilian groups when it comes to asserting interests, says the Vice President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Claudia Buch. The other civil society groups would “often find less attention”, says Claudia Buch. She also massively criticized the banks and called for better rules for “secure processing of large banks in order to avoid taxpayer liability”.
Criticism of banks, criticism of the power of the financial lobby
“The Vice President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Claudia Buch, has criticized that the financial lobby has an advantage in asserting interests. “There is a certain imbalance in the financial sector because the issues are very complex. The industry therefore has an advantage that other civil society groups find difficult to compensate for,” said Buch of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Wednesday edition).
“These are often less listened to. So we need stronger voices on the other side that represent broader social interests.” Buch is harsh on banks that resist stricter regulation and threaten that they would then not be able to finance the green transformation. “There has not yet been a crisis caused by overly strict supervision. A robust banking sector is best for financing green transformation. Because equity enables banks to continue to grant loans even in difficult times. Overall, the German banking sector currently has excess capital of more than EUR 165 billion – after deducting the regulatory capital requirements,” said Buch. So there is enough money to finance green projects. The old economy demands better rules for the safe handling of big banks in order to avoid taxpayer liability. “We have already achieved quite a bit in improving settlement regimes. But there are still gaps that we have to close so that even a large bank can be wound up in an emergency,” said Buch.”
Report with material from the dts news agency
Photo: Deutsche Bundesbank, via dts news agency