These included the high overhead costs of creating a branch network, the challenge of finding skilled staff, the continued strong importance of brand names, and the justifiably high reputation of German banks among German clients. In this tough business environment, foreign banks wanting to expand into Germany had to rely on innovation and cost-efficiency.
Let’s work together to make our payment systems faster, cheaper and safer – and let’s shield them from the sound and fury of politics. Thank you. 1 I would like to thank Elin Amundsen, Takeshi Shirakami and Morten Bech for their contributions to this speech. I  remain solely responsible for the opinions contained herein.