Community and small regional banks have also benefitted from the increased stability in financial markets. However, because they depend largely on revenues from traditional lending activities, as a group they have yet to report any notable improvement in earnings or condition since the crisis took hold.
What's more, many of today's attendees have participated in this Bundesbank symposium in the past. For many of you, it is one of the firm fixtures on your calendars for the year. However, the pandemic forced us to take a two-year hiatus from this straightforward, direct exchange of ideas. Happily, we've now moved on from that.