this much more than those in western germany. the considerable boost to income in the first few years after german unification – a good part of which was financed by western transfer payments – led to east german savings ratios initially rapidly approaching a level comparable to that in western germany. the fact that the catching - up process subsequently faltered had a significant adverse impact on the savings activities of the population in eastern germany. the deterioration of the income situation was further aggravated by the increasing burden of taxes and social security contributions. in 1998, the wage tax and social security contributions alone, accounted for around 22 % of private gross income, that means 1½ percentage points above its 1991 level. higher indirect taxes were an additional factor. besides the sluggish development of the economy as a whole, the declining power of self - alimentation and the upward movement of the fiscal burden, the increasing share of households with a low savings ratio also had a contractionary impact on savings in the longer term. those households include, for example, single - person households, whose number has risen more than twice as fast as that of all households in the old lander in the past 20 years. firstly, this reflects the ageing of society. 10 secondly, changes in the spending behaviour of people growing up can also be observed. evidently, present consumption has gained ground at the expense of future consumption. the younger generation ’ s higher propensity to consume has probably been boosted as well by expectations of future inheritances and gifts which are regarded as a substitute for own provisions for the future. the inheritance volume alone probably amounts at present to between dm200 billion and dm250 billion annually. the importance of financial asset transfers between the generations is likely to increase further. it remains to be seen whether this will have a dampening effect on private savings and the domestic supply of capital in the future. 11 with a view to the anglo - saxon countries it is justified to ask whether wealth effects might not also have played a role in the decline in savings in germany in the 1990s. in my opinion, such influences can be more or less neglected in germany so far. for example, four - fifths of the increase in private financial assets from 1990 – 1998 was due to the accumulation of current savings and only one - fifth – on account of the limited holding of shares – was attributable to capital gains. 12 in the united states and the united kingdom the corresponding ratio was around two - thirds. though i am sometimes told by

mr. hartmann ’ s welcoming remarks at the year 2000 meeting in frankfurt welcoming remarks by wendelin hartmann, a member of the directorate of the deutsche bundesbank and chairman of the g - 10 committee on payment and settlement systems ( cpss ), at the year 2000 meeting of the european central banks and financial regulators organised by the joint year 2000 council and the deutsche bundesbank in frankfurt / main on 30 / 10 / 98. ladies and gentlemen, on the occasion of a regional conference of the joint year 2000 council, i warmly welcome you here to frankfurt. as chairman of the cpss and a member of the joint year 2000 council it is an honour and a pleasure for me to act as host to this distinguished audience. thank you all for coming to frankfurt from europe, israel and the united states. i wish you a pleasant stay on the main, and i hope our meeting gives us the opportunity not only to gain new insights but also to produce some useful results that may help us to meet the enormous challenges that still lie before us. joint year 2000 council in april 1998, the basle committee on banking supervision, the committee on payment and settlement systems, the international association of insurance supervisors and the international organization of securities commissions announced the formation of the joint year 2000 council. the sponsors´ decision was motivated by their recognition of the severity of the challenges posed by the century - date change and of the potentially grave implications for the financial markets associated with a lack of readiness. the joint year 2000 council views its main task as being that of ensuring a high level of attention to the year 2000 challenge within the global financial supervisors´ community. at a number of regional meetings - of which this frankfurt conference is one - financial market regulators and supervisors from both within and outside europe have an opportunity to share strategies and experiences, to discuss possible contingency measures and establish contacts with national and international private sector initiatives. the first regional event took place in sydney for the asia - pacific region in mid - october. the present frankfurt meeting gathers regulators and supervisors from all over europe. further conferences are to be held in miami for the americas, in riyadh for the middle east, and in pretoria for the african continent. the programme of our conference today includes three panel discussions. the first one, on “ the challenges to the private and public sector relating to y2k problem ”, addresses year 2000 issues in a more general manner, whereas the second on “ remediation and testing ”, and