The German savings banks have always had a penchant for immodest self-description. One could also say: to presumptuousness. “Good for Germany” – for a long time this was a slogan with which the 360 savings banks nationwide advertised themselves. The current saying is: “Because it’s about more than money”. This is based on the old sound of “If it’s about money”. Of course, the new one should sound modern, like: Sustainability is a very big topic for us.
But the savings banks are not currently acting in a really sustainable way, on the contrary: the posse about the replacement at the top of the influential savings bank umbrella association DSGV shows above all: the savings banks are stuck in the past. A former CSU district administrator was hastily raised there these days – and an equally qualified candidate was booted out. So urgent that the candidate apparently did not manage to correct his CV in time.
The question of who will become DSGV President is not just about gender aspects or who has the prettier CV. It was almost to be expected that the savings banks would again promote a man – Ulrich Reuter, 60, CSU – to the top. What is more telling is that the financial institutions again failed to hold a debate about where they want to go permanently. In any case, Reuters’ previous statements do not suggest that he will soon be coming up with a forward-looking program.
The savings banks, as has just been shown, still trust far too much in their ties to politics – whether in municipalities, districts or at the federal level, where even a liberal finance minister like Christian Lindner always protects them. And the savings banks trust that these ties will help them forever to compete against digital banks and their often cheaper offers. They hope nobody sees through the many regulatory exceptions thrifts still enjoy. And that nobody openly says that this system is very often not “good for Germany”, but rather at the expense of the customer. After all, with fees that are too high and poor conditions, they ultimately have to maintain an oversized and therefore inefficient banking group with intricate structures and highly paid officials.
Consumer advocates criticize that customers are also sold bad products in savings banks
Why isn’t it finally different? Instead of reflexively fending off all changes from Brussels, the savings banks could go on the offensive. For example, when it comes to tiresome financial advice on a commission basis. Consumer advocates have long criticized the fact that investors in savings banks are often still being sold expensive and bad products because bank advisors prefer to collect commissions instead of providing independent information. Since this has not improved despite reform efforts, Brussels may now want to ban commissions. The savings banks could have anticipated this long ago. They could have declared good and legally secure advice for a fee to be a real alternative at an early stage – even if this meant losing income.
Or on the subject of European deposit insurance: A common deposit insurance could make the European financial markets safer for the benefit of all savers in the EU and strengthen the internal market for banks. Could, could, would. But that’s not happening because Germany, encouraged by savings banks and Volksbanks, has been blocking it for years – with outrageous arguments, for example that the citizens would be liable for savers in other countries with their savings, which is sheer nonsense.
And not to forget the sometimes absurdly high board salaries. Mainly because of the now high pension provisions, many savings bank board members are no longer concerned with just six-digit, but with seven-digit amounts. The institutes should also urgently tackle this problem themselves and not hope that their municipal owners will wave the excesses through forever – just because the local savings bank is once again donating to the mayor’s prestige projects. Will the new savings bank president dare to tackle all of these issues? If he took the slogan “good for Germany” seriously, then he would have to.