honest! i don ’ t get it. but i ’ d like to understand. that may take a while. in a nutshell... you ’ re working in an area in which not everything is governed by rules down to the last detail. so you can be creative. you work in an area in which your counterparty is highly innovative. i ’ ve been doing that now for almost 25 years but i learn new things every day. every day brings new challenges and every morning you are asked questions that you don ’ t yet know the answer to. and when you leave the office in the evening, you do know some of the answers that you didn ’ t know that morning. and you find that appealing? yes, that is truly delightful. you ’ re dealing with people for much of the time – if you don ’ t like confrontation, you ’ re in the wrong place. you have to show that you ’ re assertive, that you can say no, that you will keep on asking precise questions about certain things and will not be satisfied with vague answers. so you do need to have a certain kind of personality to feel comfortable in that role. you ’ ve experienced some turbulent times, including the financial crisis in 2008. as head of supervision at the bafin you had a crucial role in the crisis negotiations on the german side. your job probably wasn ’ t so much fun for you then. what affect did that experience have on you? in times of crisis the learning curve is especially steep and it does have an impact, i can tell you. you learn an incredible amount about political connections and political constraints. you ’ re raising your eyebrows as you say that. everyone has their own personal experience. you ’ re right, though, at that moment, in that particular case, it wasn ’ t much fun. but it does make you stronger and you come out of it with your own set of “ lessons learned ". so what were the most important lessons that you learned from the crisis? oh, i learned many lessons from it. i ’ m not sure if it ’ s possible to name the most important one. we supervisors – and i think also the market participants, politicians and legislators – definitely learnt that markets are far more interconnected than we had thought. at the time we all clearly saw that a single domino could set off a whole chain reaction. exactly. we saw that banks must take liquidity far more seriously. supervision has its own 3 / 7

bis central bankers'speeches distinct business cycle. after the crisis, supervisors are given many powers and large numbers of staff. but then it tapers off, and it becomes increasingly difficult to push things through. would you say that your experiences during the financial crisis have made you a tad tougher and more strict? oh yes, definitely. ms lautenschlager, this is our interview box, we always use it in our interviews. i ’ ll pass it over to you. for each guest we have on the programme, we put something appropriate into this box. would you like to open it? ah! boxing gloves? yes, small boxing gloves that you can hang on your car mirror. lovely, thank you. they ’ re a fitting gift for you, aren ’ t they? yes. could you sometimes use such boxing gloves when dealing with bank managers? but don ’ t boxing gloves actually soften the blows? they probably wouldn ’ t be suitable... but i wouldn ’ t only think of them in connection with bank managers. but simply.. so you would prefer to be bare - fisted? no, i prefer transparency, in the first instance, and precise instructions. and i think if you ’ re working in a kind of authority, i. e. with the competence to take administrative measures – sorry, but i am a lawyer, after all – you must give precise instructions. you should not be vague, but that doesn ’ t have to be forbidding. the underlying tone does not have to be nasty ; the message must simply be very clear : that is not good enough. you have to remedy the issue. i will give you a certain period of time in which to do so, otherwise.... and i think that every supervisor needs to have that capacity if they want to succeed. staying with the boxing metaphor for the moment, could we say that you had to fight your way up from modest beginnings. no, i would not say that. your father was a pastry chef? yes, my father is a pastry chef. my mother was a waitress. so, in that sense, i suppose it ’ s fair to speak of modest beginnings. what kind of upbringing did you have? i was brought up in the firm belief that i could do anything if i put my mind to it. my parents set great store by me having the good education that they never had themselves. there ’ s something else for you in the box, could you take