It is right that the federal government should now devote itself to the business of interest rate platforms.

Portals such as Weltsparen or Zinspilot played an inglorious role in brokering customer funds to the insolvent Greensill Bank.

Even before that, there were moments of shock for German savers whose money was invested in Bulgaria or Portugal.

After all, the legal guarantee of the deposit insurance was enough every time to pay off their deposits to the savers.

The business model of the interest rate platforms only works with the statutory deposit guarantee, otherwise savers would not entrust their money to unknown institutions.

But the interest rate platforms do nothing for the legal guarantee, the banks do that.

For this reason alone, stricter requirements for the deposit portals are necessary.

However, the interest portals are also required to learn the lessons from this and to adapt their business model.

Because if interest rates rise again and banks vie for deposits from customers, the interest rate portals are likely to lose their importance quickly.

In addition to the deposit guarantee, they also owe their business to the negative interest rates of the European Central Bank (ECB).