Erscheinung:16.01.2014 BaFin 2014 New Year press reception
In her speech at the New Year press reception hosted by BaFin in Frankfurt am Main on 16 January 2014, BaFin president Dr Elke König addressed the allegations of manipulation regarding key reference interest rates. She emphasised that when it comes to transparency and control there was still a lot of catching up to do and regulation alone would not be sufficient. "I do not believe that we are facing an all-encompassing coarsening but I do think that we have to return to certain ethical values that seem to have gone out of style in some parts of the financial sector during the boom times."
Dr König also spoke about the consequences for insurance undertakings and credit institutions arising from the sustained period of low interest rates, the regulatory treatment of government bonds and the future banking union: "We will have an integrated European banking supervision vested with real powers of intervention. If we get it right, this will provide for more stability and security than the national authorities could do added together."
Dr König ended her speech by giving an outline of current developments in BaFin's collective consumer protection, but she also called upon consumers to take enough time to make their investment decisions and to demonstrate a fair amount of scepticism.
