Savings banks fear growing social division

12.05.2022 - Press release Nr. 19

As a result of the sharp increase in prices, the German savings banks expect narrower financial leeway of German households. "Around 42% of German private households need the entire monthly income for their current living needs. The proportion is expected to rise up to 60% if price increases last for a long time. These households are hardly likely to survive," said the President of the German Savings Banks and Giro Association, Helmut Schleweis, today in Berlin. Therefore, more political attention must be given to an increasing economic and social division.

At the same time, in the course of macroeconomic uncertainties, the savings banks are noticing a sharp increase in the Germans' need for safety. "Need for safety must be taken seriously by politicians. This leads to the willingness of a majority of the population to follow the path of ecological and energetic transformation. In this context, we urgently advise not to experiment with the comprehensive safety promise of savings banks and cooperative banks to their customers at European level. Customers do not understand when the safety assets built up for their own safety are to be used at European level to protect the business activities of major international banks."

Schleweis therefore called for the German institutional protection systems of savings banks and cooperative banks not to be touched in the course of a further development of the European banking union.  It is observed with incomprehension that according to one-sided expert opinions important institutional protection systems of savings banks and cooperative banks are to be weakened or completely doubted.

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