an important purpose. it reminds us that, for colleagues who have experienced at least one complete cycle in monetary theory, what some younger colleagues call a current challenge is, in fact, just a forgotten lesson from the past. i therefore certainly agree with him that it is useful for us to be reminded of an old truth. forrest capie identified two core purposes in the history of central banking : price and financial stability. the focus in the nineteenth century was financial stability and in the twentieth century the focus changed to price stability. for most central banks, price stability has become the primary objective. it is well accepted nowadays that inflation is ultimately a monetary phenomenon and that there is no long - run trade - off between output and inflation. thus, central bank independence became something of a “ great mantra ” in the twentieth century. but this seems to be no reason for politicians to call into question the independence of central banks from time to time. public backing of the central bank ’ s quest for price stability is indispensable for a sustained culture of low inflation. and, in an era of historically low inflation rates, the damaging effects of inflation might easily be forgotten. one of the current challenges facing central banks is to uphold public acceptance for achieving price stability. 2. 1 price stability as the primary objective price stability and output stabilisation one closely related aspect in this context was pointed out by alex cukierman in his comprehensive survey on central bank independence : once the public becomes accustomed to low inflation rates, it is quite conceivable that central banks feel more inclined to concentrate their instruments on other goals, such as stabilising output. i do not want to dig too deeply into this issue, but just focus on what – in my view – seems to be a fair account of the existing literature. while globalisation has had some impact on inflation in industrialised countries, it is certainly a more stability - oriented monetary policy that deserves the main credit for the decline in inflation rates worldwide over the past 15 years. then, however, we should be highly sceptical about interpretations based on reduced form estimates of flatter phillips curves indicating a possibly more lax attitude towards risks to inflation. because not reacting in a timely manner in the face of those risks entails the danger that the very reasons for a seemingly more benign inflationary impact of shocks – solidly anchored inflation expectations due to improved monetary policy – are jeopardised. this would entail a loss of credibility. given the clear mandate of

european sovereign debt crisis and the low interest rate period. as of 2015, banks in germany saw a steady decline in their net interest income. this process began five years earlier at the savings banks. savings banks and cooperative banks faced a particularly stiff challenge – after all, their profitability has always hinged on net interest income. the savings banks finance group has, however, succeeded in boosting the amount of net commission income of late, which means that savings banks have been able to offset the declines in net interest income to a degree. profitability can also be improved by embracing innovation – nowadays these are often advances in the digital realm. after all, more and more customers want to handle their financial affairs digitally. the coronavirus pandemic intensified this trend. agile rivals have been setting new standards in this area for some time now. the savings banks group has also embarked on a mission to make its business more digital. it is a journey where everyone needs to be on board. the same can be said for the plan to strengthen the savings banks finance group as a whole, with its common institutional protection scheme, so that the savings banks can give each other the backing they need should the worst come to the worst. the current plan is for more than €5 billion to be raised from the affiliated institutions between 2025 and 2032 for an additional ips ( integriertes poolingsystem fur sicherheiten ) fund, as it is known – that equates to 0. 5 % of joint risk - weighted assets ( rwas ). these projects, and many others, saw karl - peter schackmann - fallis draw on his wealth of experience in politics : whenever interests started to diverge, he had the stamina and patience needed to put them back on track. this strengthened not just the group ’ s competitiveness but also the trust it engendered, and this ultimately also made germany ’ s banking sector a better - performing and more stable place overall. karlpeter, it is to your credit that the public banks – with the savings banks and landesbanken – also became better known and respected outside the country as the third pillar of germany ’ s banking system. that was, and still is, an important condition for ensuring that the idiosyncrasies of the german banking system are adequately taken into account in european regulation. 3 transition to a climate - neutral economy ladies and gentlemen, for the savings bank finance group, as well