Since the start of the crisis, the spotlight has been on structured securities. The overall volume of these instruments in the portfolios of German banks was contracting sharply. At the end of September 2010, the book value of residential mortgage-backed securities stood at € billion, and for collateralised debt obligations at around € billion.
Securitised student loans accounted for just under € billion and collateralised mortgage-backed securities for around € billion. From these figures on problem assets we can conclude that the associated risks are manageable in Germany on the whole. In general, the overall development of credit risk in the German banking system is still determined to a great extent by domestic conditions.