The European Commission’s proposals for implementing the new tighter capital requirements for banks are a topic of public debate. Critics say the additional requirements will hit small and medium-sized enterprises in particular. The Bundesbank, meanwhile, sees no impediments to SME funding. Executive Board member Joachim Wuermeling says the legislative proposal would not involve any changes for most of the 1,300 institutions.

The Bundesbank’s economists have examined how climate action affects the value of stock corporations. The outcome under the assumptions made was that a large proportion of the corporations under review did not suffer major equity price losses as a consequence of their direct greenhouse gas emissions, even for a sharp rise in carbon prices. By contrast, shares in companies whose greenhouse gas emissions cause them high costs in relation to their dividends suffer large losses. Stock corporations whose business centres around fossil energy sources are hardest hit.