This position is not anchored in its general belief in a market economy but also reflects its own past experience with capital controls. As an export nation, Germany was particularly interested in rapidly achieving full convertibility of its own currency. It has completely liberalised its capital exports back in the early 1960s.
Calls for bigger and more liquid financial markets that encourage investment and lending to the private sector, thereby leading – so the idea goes – to more growth, put deregulation and lenient supervision on the policy agenda. Economic theory and empirical evidence backed up this policy.