As district administrator in the Hohenlohe district, I was always deeply convinced of the value of local self-governance. What can be solved locally should be solved locally. Each of the 50 Sparkassen in Baden-Württemberg contributes to economic prosperity and social cohesion. As chairman of the board of the Sparkasse Hohenlohekreis, I have already met many important players in our financial group. However, new topics will naturally come up as the president of SVBW. That's why I spent almost a year preparing for the new task with the help of my predecessor Peter Schneider in a structured onboarding process – including for my role as a supervisory board member of LBBW.

We live in exciting times. Given the many upheavals on various levels, I am convinced that we, as the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe Baden-Württemberg, must play a significant socio-political role. It is essential to tackle major issues such as the transformation of the economy, the effects of demographic changes, and the development of artificial intelligence and digitalisation of society. We are a kind of mirror of society, and must actively shape these changes.

Our task is to actively support the mid-sized businesses in the southwest – especially in the transformation of the economy. The automotive industry, the supply industry, and the construction sector are particularly affected. The Sparkassen, along with their affiliated companies, are competent partners beyond mere financing issues. The same applies to the transformation of the energy supply, which requires new power lines and networks. Electricity from renewable energy in the north is also needed in the south.

Exactly, which allowed us to secure a strategic position in the state. Currently, we are working on developing the engagement into a customer-oriented product. Private customers of Sparkassen should be able to invest their money with the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, knowing about this involvement. We expect results in the course of the year.

Many detailed questions. We plan to start advisor training in the summer. If everything goes smoothly, the first customers can be approached in the fall. We aim to gather valuable experiences with the limited pilot project in terms of time and geography.

There will be further capital needs, but nothing that requires a decision at the moment. We are right now very concerned with the level of equity backing required by the regulatory authorities for this infrastructure investment. The latest Basel regulations allow for discretion, where risk weights can be increased from 100% to 250%. In such a highly regulated field like energy networks, we believe maintaining a risk weight of 100% is justified. We are currently in intensive discussions with the responsible authorities at the state and federal levels on this issue.

No, it's an ongoing process.

AI is both a challenge and an opportunity. It is important to use systems that can handle automated processes, and are not necessarily from the US or Asia.

I believe that with 1,712 branches in the state, we clearly fulfill our claim to remain widely present. Of the 518 self-service branches, 107 are now used jointly with local cooperative banks. The question is how and where people want to conduct their banking transactions. And it's not always just the physical branch. The online branch and the smartphone are also viable answers.

Certainly, the payment market is highly competitive. But with the new payment service, which can also be used for online shopping and later in retail, we have the chance to gradually have an impact on the payment services sector. I am convinced that this is an attractive offering. Sparkassen customers can initially send money to each other in real-time via mobile phone or email in Germany and Belgium. Other countries like France and the Netherlands will follow. Naturally, such new offerings require patience, but the Sparkassen know what endurance means.

We need to look ahead. We see enough space in the rapidly growing payments market for another payment method that is also attractive to many merchants, especially since Wero is easy and secure to handle.

The more than 50% decline in 2023 was indeed dramatic. In the first five months of 2024, a slight recovery has begun, but we are still far from the exceptionally strong business of 2022.

It's a combination of the interest rate turnaround, high construction costs, and uncertainties regarding government subsidies. One must always keep in mind that the housing we don't build today will be missing as retirement provision tomorrow.

No, only to a minor extent. This is because we have always maintained a cautious risk policy when granting loans. A large part of our mortgage loan portfolio was still granted as annuity loans with a low-interest rate and high initial repayment rate. With affordable annuities, the residual debt can be reduced by the time the usually very long fixed-interest periods expire, allowing for manageable burdens for our customers during extensions. We also have hardly any individual value adjustments to make on the commercial side.

Mid-sized companies always weigh very carefully how, where, and when they invest. Right now, many are operating at reduced capacity, holding back on investments – which means fewer defaults. This is reflected in economic growth of 0.1% in Baden-Wuerttemberg, which is below the 0.2% in the federal average. However, there are very high investments in research and development in the state.

I believe we are at a turning point. We need to decide how we want to create economic value. This requires a societal debate, which I am happy to contribute to.

We need to realise the high investments and costs for the transformation of the economy and infrastructure that lie ahead of us. This must be earned. But although there are more people employed in Germany today than ever before, 15% more than in 2000, the volume of work is only 5% higher than it was then. Additionally, there is a shortage of labour in many places. Overall, I miss a stronger drive for performance. Rolling up our sleeves and getting to work – that's the only way we as a society will meet the challenges ahead.