At the same time, the institutions have “greater room to manoeuvre” in the event of negative developments, and their loss-absorbing capability increases. The average tier 1 capital ratio of the major German banks improved from 5.4 % in 2011 to 12.1 % in the middle of last year.
The major banks in Germany and the other euro-area countries have also been directly supervised by the ECB, in cooperation with national supervisors, since November 2014. The less significant banks - around 3,500 in the euro area as whole - are supervised by the national supervisors according to uniform standards.