particularly close technical and financial interdependency within the banking sector, as well as with all sectors of the economy ( owing to the banks ’ corporate customers ), makes it necessary to take particularly comprehensive action. not only must the banks ’ own systems be reassessed but also the year 2000 preparations being made by their business partners. there is a further factor that compounds the situation : germany and the other member states of the forthcoming european monetary union must deal with the dual challenge of preparing their computer programs for the changeover to the single european currency and at the same time take the necessary preparations for the century date change. numerous parallels show up here, and what we nowadays call “ synergy effects ” are the result. they will surely be limited, yet they do clearly exist, such as in cashless payments. for one thing, there is a heightened awareness of how to handle such crosscountry and cross - system conversion processes, for which there is hardly any historical precedent. for another, completely new procedures such as the cross - border target system have been developed. in these systems, it was possible to take timely account of the changeover to the year 2000, which will take place in 427 days. the absolute necessity of preparing these systems anew for the euro has allowed the bundesbank and the credit institutions to simultaneously make virtually countless edp systems in the accounting sections and “ back offices ” year 2000 compliant. the practical experience which must almost inevitably be gained during the weekend of the changeover to the euro from 1998 to 1999 will also provide welcome knowledge that can be used for the century date change. it will probably once again become clear to all those involved that the interplay of different systems can be different in real life than in a test scenario, however realistic it may be. the year 2000 changeover has a different type of complexity than the introduction of the euro, since there is an interaction between different edp applications, system components and external software components, as well as processor - driven systems. substituting the euro for the dm will involve the organisation of workflows and operating procedures ; in computer - related terms, that means new software must be installed. however, in the changeover from december 31, 1999 to january 1, 2000, the hardware components of the edp systems, i. e. the nearly innumerable number of chips, must be transformed. the bundesbank and the credit institutions, which were already required to play a pioneering

countries with a greater share of private equity investment also, on average, have higher growth rates. 1 private equity is also an important variable for the german labour market : bvk statistics show that, at the end of 2010, german portfolio enterprises in which private equity companies were invested employed some 1. 2 million people. 2 as for the financial sector as a whole, the last few years were not exactly rosy for private equity companies either. investments by private equity companies, which had plummeted during the crisis, are now, however, showing signs of recovery. in 2010, new investments by see meyer ( 2006 ) : private equity : spice for european economies, journal of financial transformation, vol 18, november, pp 61 – 69. see bvk statistics – the year 2010 in figures, march 2011. bis central bankers ’ speeches private equity firms in germany rose by almost 60 % year - on - year to stand at €4. 4 billion. capital invested by german private equity companies thus totalled just under €36 billion last year. at roughly 0. 1 % of german gdp in 2009, investments are, however, still relatively insignificant. moreover, they are below the european average of just under 0. 2 % of gdp. 3 however, that also demonstrates the growth potential of the german market for private capital. generally speaking, growth always requires a stable environment, and that brings me to the reform of the international financial system. 3. reform of the international financial system : the road towards new regulation it is clear that we must do all we possibly can to prevent a repeat of the global financial and economic crisis that has been keeping us enthralled for some four years now. reform of the institutional and regulatory framework of the international financial system is therefore in full swing ; and it has doubtless already been improved significantly in key areas. besides creating greater transparency, a central aspect of the ongoing reform is to increase the quality and quantity of financial institutions ’ equity capital. the new capital and liquidity standards for the banking sector were discussed at length ; they will go into the post - crisis text books as “ basel iii ”. the new rules will ensure that capital requirements rise considerably – in terms of both quantity and quality. to ensure that financial institutions have a better liquidity cushion in future and are less vulnerable even in periods of stress, the firsttime introduction of global liquidity standards has been agreed. the g20, at their meeting in seoul in november of last year, committed