There are two main reasons for not running down the risk provisions. On the one hand, the risks for the Bundesbank from the risk-weighted assets, on which attention has hitherto been focussed, have declined somewhat, since both the volume of refinancing loans from the Eurosystem and that of the securities from the Securities Markets Programme (SMP) have decreased.
On the other hand, additional credit risks will arise over the next two years. These are due to the decisions of the ECB Governing Council on the purchase programmes. These chiefly refer to the Asset-Backed Securities Purchase Programme (ABSPP) from September 2014, and the Covered Bond Purchase Programme (CBPP3).