By not participating in the capital market, retail investors are missing opportunities to share in business success. Where this is due to a lack of knowledge and understanding, financial  BIS central bankers’ speeches  7  education as provided by organisations such as Deutsches Aktieninstitut can help to gradually increase the participation rate.
Under the European regulation, supervisors may require the banks to use the International Financial Reporting Standards for supervisory reporting. We have chosen not to exercise this option. It would have imposed a disproportionate burden on those banks that draw up their balance sheets according to national standards. Banks may therefore continue to use national standards for their supervisory reporting.