Europe's bankers are obviously better off speaking to the European Central Bank (ECB).

At the "Frankfurt European Banking Congress" in Frankfurt, a high-ranking industry meeting that takes place every year at the end of November in Frankfurt's Alte Oper, the heads of the big banks showered ECB President Christine Lagarde with praise on Friday.

There were side blows for banking regulation and conflicts in banking supervision.

However, there was a striking amount of support for the central bank's new course of interest rate hikes.

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in Business.

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"I would like to congratulate you on the way in which you managed to bring about a turnaround in monetary policy," Christian Sewing, Deutsche Bank CEO, told Lagarde: "For the determination and the clarity with which you communicating with the markets – and not least for the way you have captured the different currents within the ECB.”

That had sounded very different at the same event a year ago: At that time, the big banks and the ECB exchanged blows in which the big banks expressed their explicit disapproval of the central bank hesitating for so long and allowing inflation to keep rising.

Back then, Deutsche Bank boss Sewing and Commerzbank boss Manfred Knof had criticized the central bank unusually sharply for bankers.

Lagarde countered at the time that while inflation was "unwanted and painful," it would only be temporary.

Since then, the ECB has raised its interest rates three times - and the banks benefit significantly in terms of margins and share prices.

For her part, the President of the ECB held out the prospect of further interest rate hikes.

The next time the Governing Council meets is on December 15th.

It seems quite certain that interest rates will be raised again, but it is unclear by how much.

"We assume that we will continue to raise interest rates," Lagarde affirmed: How far the ECB will go and at what pace will be determined by the inflation outlook.

The ECB President emphasized that the central bank will ensure that excessive inflation does not become part of people's inflation expectations.

Lagarde defended strong banking regulation in an environment of deep uncertainty: "Against such a backdrop, regulatory dilution exposed banks to even more shocks," Lagarde said.

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel and Dutch central bank boss Klaas Knot campaigned for a further tightening of monetary policy with even more emphasis than the ECB President.

"Our response must be decisive," demanded Knot.

Nagel said he thought it was "wrong to hold off on further decisive moves for fear of a downturn."

He also commented on plans to start reducing central banks' massive bond holdings, which is due to be decided in December: "In my opinion, early next year we should start reducing the size of our bond holdings by not holding more fully reinvest all maturing bonds.

The additional tightening would help bring down inflation.”

Deutsche Bank CEO Sewing warned that Europe's financial dependency on foreign banks could pose a similar threat to Russia's gas dependency.

Losing financial sovereignty would be just as bad as energy dependency, he said.

The head of Deutsche Bank proposed an "Agenda 2030" for Europe, in which the competitiveness of the economy and the financial sector should be strengthened.

Sustainable finance has become an important area for banks, but Sewing says the region's leadership in this area is under threat.

The region lacks the capital and financing structures to cope with this task on its own.

Europe needs more private capital from outside to achieve the climate goals and remain competitive, said Commerzbank boss Knof.

He explained,

On the subject of the crisis, the bank bosses tried to spread optimism.

Sewing said he had never experienced a situation in his professional career that was so complex, with risks from all sides.

But he sees the banks and companies well prepared.

In the short term, it is particularly important to get inflation under control again.

Regarding the federal government's 200 billion package, Sewing said it was right and necessary.

But now you have to change your attitude and not expect everything from the state, after all the budget is limited: "We can only solve the crisis together - if we do that, we can do it."