sides ” like mario draghi or, more recently, jorg kukies – after all, i ’ m one of that ilk, too. if you ask me, what we need is more interaction and more dialogue – and never more so than in times like these in the face of increasingly complex topics. taking on an official post for the res publica is always something of a commitment, and i do hope that many more bankers will offer to take a public position. rest assured : the experience of working in an official capacity for the common good is far more rewarding than advocating the interests of the few. and who is better placed to say that than me, having lived in both worlds? the work that piled up on my desk these past eight years encompassed a wide variety of topics. the term of office of carl - ludwig thiele and myself was undoubtedly an era marked by substantial change, and events kicked off during our very first weekend in office, when the first 2 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches greek rescue package needed to be assembled in basel amid intense political and time pressure. carl - ludwig thiele and i spent our first week at the bundesbank attending two meetings a day of the bundesbank's financial crisis team – believe you me : that was a particularly intense way to get started back in may 2010. much has changed since then. the period of low interest rates is posing an entirely new set of challenges for the banking and central banking communities. supervision of large institutions has now evolved into european supervision. structural change in the banking world, sparked by the triple whammy of low interest rates, digitalisation and regulatory reforms, is something we all need to get to grips with – credit institutions, central banks, banking supervisors and not least consumers and bank customers. i would not be exaggerating if i said these were the stiffest challenges in decades. looking to the future, i dare say that geopolitical risk might prove to be more significant than economic risk. let ’ s hope i ’ m wrong. just as times have changed, so, too, has the agenda. ask me to select the headlines for my term of office at the bundesbank and i would pick out topics like the capital markets union, of which i was an early advocate in spite of some resistance. there are other subjects such as the profitability of credit institutions in germany, brexit and everything it involves, and not forgetting the emergence of new fin

my tenure here at the bundesbank. and being an alumnus of the classical school of economics, i am also a passionate advocate of the market economy, committed to stability, and sceptical about excessive government influence. and let ’ s be honest here, with that kind of profile, where better to work than at the bundesbank? on a very broad note, i found the bundesbank to be a place where, without having to disown my ordopolitical beliefs, i was able to devote my attention to my responsibilities and to raise fresh topics – and not just the uncontroversial ones. you can ’ t measure anyone, least of all a banking supervisor – felix hufeld will know what i ’ m talking about – in terms of whether they keep everyone happy. to quote franz - josef strauss : “ everybody ’ s darling, everybody ’ s idiot ”. i have always been in favour of taking a stance, standing up for clearly defined viewpoints, always being open for dialogue, and positioning the bundesbank ahead of the curve. during my term of office, i felt my natural role was as the bundesbank ’ s ambassador. that was not just how i interpreted the position itself – it was also a deep - seated passion of mine to heighten the bundesbank ’ s standing – in the world of banking, in the markets, among other german and global institutions, in the fiscal policy sphere, in matters of economic education – 1 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches and to accomplish all that not only in germany, but around the globe. hardly surprising, then, that i spent a lot of time – a huge amount of time, in fact – jetting around the world over the past eight years. my wife could tell you a thing or two about that. as the bundesbank ’ s g20 deputy, the presidencies in korea, france, mexico, australia and turkey fell within my direct term of office ; as for the g7, my tenure coincided with the presidencies of canada, france, the usa, the united kingdom and germany. my role as the bundesbank ’ s imf deputy took me on regular visits to washington, but also to imf meetings in tokyo and lima. on top of that, i travelled to the bis in basel, the oecd in paris, and the european parliament and the commission in brussels, and so on. i have a confession to make :