Maintaining the Stability of the German Financial System

The Bundesbank’s latest financial stability report found that the German banking system had weathered the pandemic well, with hardly any losses to the system. While supervisory measures were important for maintaining stability, the banks’ resilience was due in large measure to the extensive fiscal and monetary policy response from the outset of the pandemic, and substantial government aid to the corporate sector that prevented losses there from spilling over to banks. But now the challenges of exiting the pandemic must be mastered, at a time of unprecedented uncertainty.