Ladies and Gentlemen It is a great pleasure for me to be present today as a guest speaker at this year's autumn meeting of the Wildbader Kreis. I would like to thank you very much for the invitation. Savings banks are an integral part of the German financial industry. The share of savings banks in the balance sheets of all banks based in Germany last year was 15 percent. The proportion is much larger, exactly twice as large, when we look at loans to private households and non-financial companies. The savings bank group therefore plays an important role when it comes to mastering the challenges of the future. This ... (full story)