Is Germany overbanked? - Market structure and competition


Book Description

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,3, European Business School - International University Schloß Reichartshausen Oestrich-Winkel, course: Seminar Retail Banking, language: English, abstract: German banks have come under pressure for their disappointing profitability. Indeed, rankings of developed nations along profitability indicators place Germany at the end of the scale. Critics attribute that situation mainly to the German banking system being overbanked and overbranched. The purpose of this paper is to analyze that notion and to examine the German market and competitive landscape of the retail banking industry. The analysis contains four sections. The first section compares profitability ratios and indicators of German banks to their peers’ performances. The study produces surprising results. Despite the ostensibly high branch density, Germany’s banks operate very cost efficiently. Yet it is their inability to generate sufficient income that results in the sluggish net earnings. Consequently, in the second section, the authors examine the German banking system and portray and compare its peculiarities in order to find out if the income problems are inherent to the system. More than in any other country, public banks dominate the market and, together with the cooperative banks, do not follow the economic principle of profit maximization. Moreover, the public banks have also received unjust government subsidies in the form of the maintenance and guarantee obligations. Thus, one presumes that private German banks operate in a very difficult system. The third section then takes a closer look at the market and analyzes the bank density, branch density and competition which the system produces. In the past, waves of intra-group consolidations have occurred. Similarly, branch networks have been thinned out especially by the private banks in an effort to cut costs. The result is that the current situation does not appear overly overbanked when put into perspective to the population, area, productivity and customer business. However, the German banking market is very competitive, and calls for further consolidations aim at decreasing competition rather than realizing synergies. In the fourth and last section, an appraisal of the current system is presented. Customers benefit from the current structure as it allows for easier access to credit compared to other countries, offers banking services to everybody at low costs and appears to be inherently stable. Thus, Germany is overbanked in the sense of high competition which negatively impacts bank profitability. Yet good companies should also be profitable in a competitive environment.




Price Management in Financial Services


Book Description

The financial services industry is undergoing a period of dramatic change. Deregulation has created an ultra-competitive marketplace and recent challenges like the worldwide subprime crisis, SEPA and Basel II have only intensified the need for financial services providers to shift their focus to customer centric Smart Profit GrowthTM strategies. Price Management in Financial Services shows how to utilize the modern techniques of value-based pricing to design professional pricing processes that go beyond the industry's current norm of purely risk and cost based pricing. The authors provide insight into strategic pricing concepts such as market segmentation, product bundling, multi-channel pricing and non-linear pricing and give an overview of advanced price optimization methods. The book serves as a step-by-step guide to long term profitable growth through professional pricing by familiarizing the reader with the concepts of price-response function management and price elasticity of demand. The book also includes a number of implementation strategies to incorporate Power Pricing into financial services institutions and includes a large number of Simon-Kucher & Partners' international case studies that illustrate the enormous profit potential that lies in professional pricing.




The German Financial System


Book Description

This book is both a reference book on Germany's financial system and a contribution to the economic debate about its status at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In giving a comprehensive account of the many facets of the system, it covers corporate governance, relationship lending, stock market development, investor protection, the venture capital industry, and the accounting system, and reports on monetary transmission and the credit channel, regulation and banking competition, the insurance and investment industry, and mergers and acquisitions. Special chapters at the beginning and at the end of the book adopt the financial system perspective, analysing the mutual fit of different features of the financial system; and each of the fifteen chapters addresses particular myths that surround it. The book is invaluable for those who want to understand the German economy and its financial system, promising not only a compilation of facts and statistics on Germany's financial markets and institutions, but also an analysis of its current structure and the determinants of its future development.




Cooperative Sourcing


Book Description

Daniel Beimborn develops a formal model in order to explore cooperative sourcing activities in the banking industry. Together with survey data from the German banking industry, the model is used in simulation studies which allow for compound analyses of causes and effects of cooperative sourcing.




The German Economy


Book Description

Germany is clearly the dominant economic force in Europe. It occupies the pivotal position of being at the centre of both the EC and of attempts to rebuild the economies of East Central Europe. The German Economy traces the various aspects of German policy and growth, concentrating in particular on the last two decades. These include: the German economy in perspective the regional dimension fiscal policy monetary policy social policy the labour market banking and finance industry, trade and economic policy. In The German Economy Eric Owen Smith has produced the only comprehensive account of the contemporary German economy currently available in English.




The German Economy


Book Description

In this book, one of Germany's most influential economists describes his country's economy, the largest in the European Union and the third largest in the world, and analyzes its weaknesses: poor GDP growth performance, high unemployment due to a malfunctioning labor market, and an unsustainable social security system. Horst Siebert spells out the reforms necessary to overcome these shortcomings. Taking a broader view than other recent books on the German economy, he considers Germany's fiscal policy stance, product market regulation, capital market, environmental policy, aging and immigration policies, and its system for human capital formation as well as Germany's role in the European Union, including the euro zone. Germany's system of economic governance emerges as a common theme as Siebert examines why this onetime economic powerhouse is today a faltering giant. He argues that what Germany needs, above all, is a market renaissance; that it must throw off the shackles of its social welfare economy and of its hallmark consensus approach, whereby group-based cooperative decision-making has undermined competition and markets. In doing so he examines both the country's social security system and its labor market, including trade unions. His focus throughout is on Germany's present concerns, foreseeable future problems, and long-term policy issues. The definitive word on the postwar German economy to the present day, The German Economy is essential reading for economists and finance professionals as well as students, researchers, and others interested in modern-day Germany and its place and prospects at the heart of Europe.




The Oxford Handbook of German Politics


Book Description

Few countries have caused or experienced more calamities in the 20th century than Germany. The country emerged from the Cold War as a newly united and sovereign state, eventually becoming Europe's indispensable partner for all major domestic and foreign policy initiatives. This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of some of the major issues of German domestic politics, economics, foreign policy, and culture by leading experts in their respective fields. This book serves primarily as a reference work on Germany for scholars and an interested public, but through this broader lens it also provides a magnifying glass of global developments which are challenging and transforming the modern state. The growing importance of Germany as a political actor and economic partner makes this endeavor all the more timely and pertinent from a German, European, and global perspective.




Zombie Banks


Book Description

An in-depth look at the problems surrounding zombie banks and their dangerous effect on the global economy “The title is worthy of a B movie, but it's also apt. Bloomberg News reporter Yalman Onaran, supported by former U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chief Sheila Bair - who provides a foreword and numerous interviews - urge that insolvent banks both small and too big to fail be allowed to do precisely that. Reading bank balance sheets is not everyone's idea of a good time. But Mr. Onaran, with support from Ms. Bair, does the chore and explains what it means. Mr. Onaran shows that the process of rescuing dead and dying banks is increasing systemic risk in the global banking system. And that is really more frightening than scream flicks from Tinseltown.” -- Financial Post “Yalman Onaran knows of putrid financial institutions, having written about them in his native Turkey so successfully he brought down a few in Istanbul in the late '90's.” -- Huffington Post “Do We Love Zombie Banks? The new book by Yalman Onaran of Bloomberg News, Zombie Banks: How Broken Banks and Debtor Nations Are Crippling the Global Economy, is a well-organized and clearly written discussion of the use of leverage to provide growth in many different economies. Onaran has carefully researched the zombie phenomenon and makes some important points in this concise volume about both public policy and the concerns of investors. One of the more interesting early threads in the book is the juxtaposition of the experience of the US in the S&L crisis and Japan in the 1980s and 1990s with the US today. Zombie Banks is a good review of the latest thinking about the ebb and flow of the political economy.” -- R. Christopher Whalen, author of Inflated Zombie banking has become standard operating procedure for big debtor nations. They prop up failing institutions, print money, and avoid financial corrections. But in an attempt to prolong the inevitable, bigger problems are created. The approach used now has not, and will not, work. This timely book reveals why. Zombie Banks tells the story of how debtor nations and failing institutions are damaging the long-term prospects of the global economy. Author Yalman Onaran, a veteran Bloomberg News reporter and financial banking sector expert, examines exactly what a zombie bank is and why they are kept alive. He also discusses how they hurt economic recovery and what needs to be done in order to restore stability. Along the way, Onaran takes an honest look at how we arrived at this point and details the harsh realities that must be faced, and the serious steps that must be taken, in order to get things headed in the right direction. Puts insolvent banks and debtor nations in the spotlight and examines how they are crippling the global economy On the record sources include Paul Volcker, Joseph Stiglitz, Sheila Bair, and many more bank executives, regulators, politicians, and policymakers in the United States and abroad Takes the complexity of the current situation and translates it in a way that makes it understandable While the short-term measures taken to stave off depression and rejuvenate economic growth may offer hope, they are unsustainable over the long term. Get a better look at what really lies ahead, and what it will take to improve our economic situation, with this book.




The Future of Finance after SEPA


Book Description

SEPA was created by Europe’s banks in 2002 in response to regulations and plans drawn up by the European Commission from a meeting in Lisbon at the turn of the millennium. Consequently, SEPA has been assisted by new legislation, the PSD, which was agreed in 2007. The implementation of SEPA takes place in 2008 within the banking industry, with full operation in 2010, and will be a massive change to not just banking, but all aspects of finance and financial services across Europe and the globe. This is because the vision for SEPA is that, by 2010, all euro payments are treated in the same way as domestic payments. In other words, European citizens and corporations enjoy a transparent market where there is no difference in charges for payments between Rome, Madrid, Paris and Munich. As a result, citizens, governments and corporations will have full access to finance transparently across 15 countries today and potentially 31 tomorrow. A United States of Europe, fuelled by fully integrated financing, will be different to the fragmented Europe of the past. This book reviews the key implications and challenges of SEPA and the PSD across the European landscape, and the likely outcomes of SEPA for 2010 and beyond. The main themes that emerge are that many of Europe’s leading providers of payments infrastructures, which are often bankowned, will disappear and new payments providers and structures will emerge. Some of these will be evolutions and some will be revolutions. In addition, there will be major impacts upon those banks that cannot provide euro-services competitively in this new geographically competitive environment. The winners will reap major rewards, but there will be far more losers who will be merged or acquired. With contributions from leading authorities, including: • Anthony Kirby, the Reference Data User Group • Ashley Dowson, the SEPA Consultancy • Bo Harald, TietoEnator • Bodil Nelsson and Mats Wallén, Bankgirocentralen • Brenda O’Connell, Bank of Ireland • Chris Pickles, BT • Chris Skinner, the Financial Services Club and Balatro • Daniel Szmukler, EBA CLEARING • Daniele Danese, Banca Popolare di Verona • David Doyle, EU Policy Advisor on Financial Markets • Doctor John Ryan, CASS Business School • Erkki Poutiainen, Nordea • Eva King, the European Commission • Geoffroy de Schrevel, SWIFT • Gerard Hartsink, the European Payments Council • Gianfranco Tabasso, the European Association of Corporate Treasurers • Harry Leinonen, the Bank of Finland • Heiko Schmiedel, the European Central Bank • Henrik Parl, Eurogiro • Hervé Postic, founder, UTSIT • James Barclay, JPMorgan Chase • John Bullard, IdenTrust • John Chaplin, First Data • Jonathan Williams, Eiger • Juergen Weiss, Gartner • Mark Hale, Barclays Bank • Neil Burton, IBM • Nick Senechal, VocaLink • René Pelegero, PayPal • Richard Spong, Sterling Commerce • Robert Bradfield, Ernst & Young • Ruth Wandhöfer, Citi • Sean Fitzgerald, Sentinel • Sharon Bowles, Member of the European Parliament • Tom Buschman, TWIST




True Sale Securitization in Germany and China


Book Description

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: The Master thesis for LL.M. at Goethe university s ILF titled True Sale Securitization in Germany and China is a comparative study about true sale securitization. The initial reason for a comparative study was the similarity of banking centred financial systems in these two countries. Another reason is connected with the True Sale Initiative (TSI), a plan composed by major German banks aiming at improving their financial situation. German banks start to be plagued by the non-performing loans (NPLs) since 2001 due to mediocre performance of German corporations and depreciation of banks investment to the east part during 1990s. Facing the competitions from other countries and under pressures from the International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards: a Revised Framework (Basel II) issued by the Basel Committee on Banking and Supervisory Practice (Basel Committee) at the Bank for International Settlements, the German banks employed the TSI as one part of the bigger financial reform to regain competition in Europe and worldwide. December 2004, the first true sale securitization was successfully constructed in Germany after German federal government changed some of its formerly unfriendly legal, taxation and accounting rules. The German experiences with TSI can shed some light into how China to develop its asset-backed securities (ABS) market in order to save its heavy NPLs-burdened banks and find alternative funds for its corporations. Although securitization might be a possible solution, the Chinese current legal system and market infrastructure prevents it from fully utilizing this modern financing technique. What China can learn from Germany s experiences is, that a special securitization law is preferred to amending each relevant laws and rules in order to get rid of legal barriers and contradictions for true sale securitizations. In addition, strong governmental supports will facilitate and accelerate the process of true sale securitization market development. The similarities between the German and Chinese financial system is the main incentive for this study. Both Germany and China have a financial system that is dominated by banks and at the same time features a weak capital market. Banks are the main external financing sources for domestic corporations. Furthermore, in both countries banks are suffering losses and carrying burden of non-performing loans (NPLs), due to the bad [...]