feel valued, trust will grow, and the bank will acquire more business in the future. in a nutshell : sustainable profitability over the long term is not possible without ethical conduct. i ’ d like to know what you think of this statement. to sum up, in a memo to berkshire hathaway shareholders in 2006, warren buffett wrote that “ culture, more than rule books, determines how an organization behaves. ” i believe there is a lot of truth in this statement. in the end, corporate culture is defined not by rule books but by the behaviour of each individual employee. after all, a company ’ s public reputation is essentially the sum of the behaviour of all its individual employees. finally, introducing a corporate culture or defining a set of ethics and values is important, applying them to daily routines is even more important. each and every one of us can begin by reflecting on, and reexamining, our own behaviour. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches

bankers ’ speeches kurt biedenkopf : “ new debt is tantamount to issuing bills of exchange which my grandchildren will pay off. ” however, many tend to agree more with groucho marx, who is reputed to have asked himself, “ why should i care about posterity? what has posterity ever done for me? ” 1. 3. reform of federal financial relationships sound finances are important not only for central government but also for state governments. the debt brake will enter into force for the federal states, too, in 2020. the rules for the state government revenue - sharing scheme will also expire at the same time – at least if the motion by hesse and bavaria before the federal constitutional court is struck down. follow - up provisions will have to be adopted pursuant to the basic law. the discussion about reforming the states ’ financial relationships is very complex. it should therefore begin early, especially in order to achieve genuine structural improvement and not to get stuck at questions purely relating to distribution, which are at the forefront of short - term reforms. what is important is the creation of better incentives to increase regional taxgenerating capacity, in terms of transferring less from additional tax receipts. 1. 4. equal taxation of debt and equity capital targeted public investment in education and infrastructure can strengthen the forces of growth. in the area of private investment, the government ’ s most important job is to set suitable framework conditions that minimise distortion. here, too, there is room for improvement. on the topic of corporate taxation, the focus is mostly on tax avoidance and the use of accounting options by multinational groups. i do believe this to be an important point. and it is clear that economic returns on entrepreneurial activity should be properly taxed. international cooperation is of central importance in order to avoid undesired evasion and distorting accounting options. however, i do wish to bring to mind another aspect which has been on the agenda for quite a long time – in both academia and the policymaking world – for which a solution has not yet been found : differences in the taxation of investment depending on the type of funding and legal form. this runs counter to the fundamental principle of like taxation of like economic quantities. entrepreneurial decisions should be oriented to economic criteria irrespective of the enterprise ’ s legal form and funding. therefore, we need to work more on limiting the current tax treatment favouring debt financing over equity financing and thus, at the same time, encourage enterprises to