Political help

3 December 2009 By Margaret Doyle

Josef Ackermann surprised his German banking peers and gained a little political kudos by proposing a common fund help midsized companies survive the credit crunch. But the Deutsche Bank boss’s plan leaves less troubled rivals cold. They think they’re doing enough already.

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Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank proposed a common fund to finance small and mediumsized companies at a meeting of German bankers with Chancellor Angela Merkel, Rainer Bruederle, the economy minister and finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin on Wednesday. Ackermann did not provide details of how the fund would work.

The German government has acknowledged that only certain sectors have felt a financing pinch. The head of the BGA exporters group said this week that he is optimistic about next year.

Ackermann did not consult the heads of either the BVR, the cooperative bank federation, or the DSGV, the savings banks association, before the meeting. These two pillars of the tripartite German banking system said on Thursday that they will not participate in any common fund with the private banks.

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