Helmut Schleweis new President of European Savings Banks Group

Today, Helmut Schleweis, President of the Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband (DSGV), was unanimously elected by the General Assembly and the Board of the European Savings and Retail Banking Group (ESBG) in Brussels as the new President of the European banking association. In his capacity as President, Schleweis will defend the interests of savings banks and similar institutions in 20 European countries in the next three years. He succeeds Isidro Fainé, President of the Spanish Fundación Bancaria La Caixa, in this position.

After his election, Schleweis confirmed that, in the next few years, it would remain important to demonstrate vis-à-vis the EU’s legislators and regulators the role played by savings banks and locally focused retail banks in Europe’s economy and society. “Europe needs strong regions whose potential for economic and social development will have to be optimally tapped. The proper functioning of local credit institutions which ensure access to financial services for all sections of the population and which supply credit to small and medium-sized enterprises is more important than ever”, said Schleweis. “The functioning must not be hampered by burgeoning regulation.”

While a better graduated system was beginning to emerge in EU banking regulation, this work would have to continue. Schleweis stated that “the banking market in the United States is very heterogeneous, and U.S. banking regulation is therefore clearly graduated. Despite all the progress made by EU legislators, the European Union is still lagging far behind the United States in terms of the proportionality of banking regulation.”

The Brussels-based European Savings Banks Group represents locally focused credit institutions with an aggregated balance sheet total of EUR 7,100 billion, a workforce of 810,000 employees, a network of 60,000 branches, and 190 million customers.