Newsletter Jul/Aug 2005: Same business, same risk, same rules

In the May issue, GRR reported the alarm of private German banks over amendments to the EU Capital Requirements Directive, which were claimed to give special privileges to savings and cooperative banks. Savings banks argued, however, that the amendments did no more than put them on a comparable basis to private banks. Under a compromise amendment, passed on July 13 by the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) of the European Parliament, the savings and cooperative banks will achieve the comparability they seek, if they meet certain criteria. Dr. Karl-Peter Schackmann-Fallis* lays out the savings banks’ case, below, and explains why the compromise amendment is a fair result.