By What’s more, neither the current nor the previous federal government seems to be aware of the importance of the finance industry. During the financial crisis, Commerzbank was first forced to swallow up Dresdner, and then provided with just enough capital to survive. Because of fears that banks that were too big would pose a systemic risk, here, in contrast to other countries, there was a tendency to scrimp rather than save. But a lot has happened in the decade and a half since the financial crisis. Size as a competitive advantage has long been back in vogue. Other countries have bred sharks for which our smaller fish serve at best as morsels. The German government only seems to have recently realised this, after Unicredit came onto the scene. The largest economy in the eurozone is, at best, a spectator when it comes to bank consolidation.
