In the future, the German certificates industry also wants people with lower incomes to have better access to the opportunities offered by the capital markets.

Henning Bergmann, Executive Director of the German Derivatives Association (DDV), pointed out at the German Derivatives Day in the Frankfurter Hof on Monday that 95 percent of the structured securities offered by his industry have a lower risk than shares and can therefore help to optimize returns and reduce risks.

"The financial market crisis and the Lehman insolvency were unique and were overcome," said Bergmann.

We are now a long way from the time of crisis management in the early years of the association in 2008 and 2009 and rely on self-commitments and transparency.

For years, the certificate market in Germany has been around 70 billion euros.

Daniel Mohr

Editor in Business.

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Lutz Johanning, professor at the WHU in Vallendar, presented a study by the scientific advisory board of the DDV, according to which the cost ratio in certificates had fallen to 0.8 percent per year and was therefore a fifth lower than in the study in 2017 Industry in Germany is characterized by high competition and falling margins in the low-interest environment.

Christian Vollmuth, who after his time on the board of the Frankfurt index provider Solactive has now returned to the DDV as executive director, emphasized in his welcoming address the opportunities that arise for certificates when interest rates rise.

"The upward trend on the stock market is currently pausing, and certificates were designed precisely for such market phases."

Guest speaker Peer Steinbrück let the assembled bankers know that when he was finance minister during the financial crisis he had advocated greater nationalization of credit institutions.

"But the CDU and CSU had regulatory concerns," said Steinbrück.

The Americans were more consistent and got out of the crisis much faster.

"The German banking sector is not very competitive today, the two largest institutes with their stock market valuations are predestined takeover candidates."

Steinbrück warned of the risk of becoming dependent on US banks for financing following the energy dependency on Russia, the trade dependency on China and the dominance of American internet giants.

He called for significantly more financial education in schools, is concerned about Italy's debt, but predicts that the euro will still exist in 25 years.