International Issues

The Association of German Banks’ members have subsidiaries and branch offices in a number of countries or do business with them from Germany to finance German exports, for example. This applies not only to other EU member states and industrialised countries, but also to emerging and developing economies.

For the latter, in particular, Germany’s state export credit insurance, known as Hermes cover, plays a major role in the provision of export finance. The Association of German Banks lobbies for continual fine-tuning and optimisation of this instrument.
» Export finance and export credit insurance

The legal environment governing the business of German bank branches in third countries often falls short of that in the European internal market. The Association of German Banks believes that ensuring unimpeded access to foreign markets for its members should be high on the agenda of EU multilateral and bilateral trade policy.
» Multilateral trade policy in the WTO and bilateral free trade agreements

Regulatory measures also often render market access unnecessarily difficult for foreign financial market participants. The Association of German Banks represents the banking policy interests of its members in major foreign markets.
» US financial market regulation

Since November 2008, the G20 has established itself as an important forum for international financial market regulation. The heads of state and government of the twenty major industrialised and emerging-market countries decided in the wake of the economic and financial crisis that every financial centre, every financial market participant and every financial product should be adequately regulated and supervised. The Association of German Banks reports and comments on the G20’s discussions.
» G20

The Association of German Banks is also actively involved in several regional initiatives and cooperates with representatives from other leading associations of the German business community on promoting trade and investment with the regions in question.
» Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business (APA)
» Latin America Initiative of German Business (LAI)
» North Africa/Middle East Initiative of German Business (NMI)
» Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (OA)