Abstract

In this essay, perspectives of the securities business deriving from market developments in the seventies are considered in the light of banking policy. In the past decade, an almost loophole-free system of financing instruments has been built up on the domestic and foreign capital markets: a refutation of the charges of traditionalism and lack of imagination levelled against the banking system. The cause of this development lies, above all, in the instability of the terms and conditions on the market (interest rate and maturity structure), which has led to narrowing down of the maturity bandwith in the direction of shorter maturities. The “continuum of financing instruments” is also attributable, however, to new financing needs such as recycling of petrodollars, large power station construction and, in the domain of government finance, a change from traditional budget deficit financing to the financing of cyclically effective expenditures. Lastly, institutional impediments have also resulted in the creation of flexible and efficient instruments, particularly loans against notes. The completion of the capital market assortment has left two gaps: the industrial debenture and the share. An attempt is made to demonstrate that the weakness of these two instruments is beyond the sphere of influence of the banking system. A second group of problems is the changed risk situation of the banking ‚system resulting from market developments in the seventies, partiularly due to the addition of the risks on capital markets abroad. The author advances the view that despite actually observable changes in the risk structure there is scarcely any need for special regulations issued by domestic supervisory authorities. In particular, the question is examined of whether the high-interest phase indicates the advisability of including listed fixed-interest securities in the credit-business components of Principle III of the Federal Supervisory Office for the Banking Business. The third section deals with competition questions of underwriting syndicates business such as the alleged monopoly position of underwriting consortiums and the permanent establishment of underwriting ratios. In the fourth section, the use of EDP in the securities business and paperless securities transfers are discussed as future technical perspectives. The problems here lie not in the technical sphere or in the limitation of the market spectrum, but in the fundamental interest in protecting trust as the basis of banking business.