And last but not least, small and medium-sized institutions are benefiting from greater regulatory leeway for business with corporate customers from the SME sector, which are an important client group for these banks. So as you can see, the implications of the sometimes complex new rules of the Basel III framework affect credit institutions and enterprises in similar ways.
Small and medium-sized market participants, in particular – both in the financial sector and in the real economy – are concerned about the new regulation. However, I think many of their worries are unfounded. The Basel framework creates active incentives to lend to SMEs, which play an important role in employment and economic activity – especially in Germany.