The extensive depreciation requirements due to the significant shares losses have been mitigated by legislation providing tax accounting relief. Fourth, I would now like to take a look at the German banks. The decline in the equity market has led to a reduction in the amount of hidden reserves.
The growth weakness of the German economy is reflected, above all, in a high risk provision requirement for domestic lending business. Added to this are low earnings from commission business and own-account trading. All of this has hit a banking system where, for structural reasons, margins are comparatively narrow anyway.