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Berlin (dpa) - The East German Savings Banks Association does not expect a large wave of corporate insolvencies in the region.
"The liquidity of the companies does not yet show any signs of imminent bankruptcy across the board," said association manager Wolfgang Zender on Tuesday at the presentation of the business figures for the past year.
“There will be bankruptcies, we have a bug from last year.
But I am convinced that we will not get a large wave of bankruptcies, ”added association president Michael Ermrich.
The medium-sized economy is at least currently equipped with sufficient equity through loans, deferrals and government grants.
The longer the crisis lasts, the more uncertain the situation becomes.
In addition, the major concerns, for example in retail or gastronomy, are justified.
"We see the distress in individual industries in particular as a result of the continued lockdown and that the lack of help leads to difficulties," emphasized Zender.
In the past year, however, the East German savings banks have had significantly fewer loan hours than initially feared.
A total of around 33,000 applications with a total volume of around 4.2 billion euros were received by the savings banks association last year.
The share of all loans is in the low single-digit percentage range, said Ermrich.
Three quarters of the volume is related to business customers.
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The savings banks themselves got along well with the effects of the pandemic last year.
The European Central Bank's low interest rate policy continues to cause much greater concern.
This led to the savings banks' operating profit falling by EUR 166 million over the past three years.
Last year it was therefore 1.14 billion euros.
The East German Savings Bank Association represents 45 savings banks in the four federal states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.
Berlin and Thuringia are not represented.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210216-99-463220 / 2
Press release OSV