Notes

The surveys are based on data from the Deutsche Bundesbank’s banking statistics and reports on the performance of the German banks, and on figures supplies by the employers’ association for the private banking sector in Germany.

To interpret the data correctly, please take note of the following:

• The data in the monthly balance sheet statistics is based on monthly reports supplied by individual banks. These are not consolidated figures.
• Statistical breaks have not been eliminated from the end-of-year statistics. Their main use, therefore, is for analysing a situation at a particular point in time. Their suitability for examining developments over a period of time is limited. This applies particularly to the data on individual categories of banks.
• · For this reason, the Bundesbank also publishes the changes in individual positions. Statistical breaks have been eliminated from these figures. Adjustments are made for changes in reporting methods, changes in the group of reporting banks (due to the inclusion of additional banks, mergers or liquidations, transfers to another category of banks), changes in the way securities holdings or foreign exchange positions are valued, corrections to inaccurate information, etc.
• There have been a number of statistical redefinitions in recent years. The major changes since 1992 are:
  
  - The inclusion of Deutsche Postbank AG in the category of banks with special functions in 1992, its transfer in 1999 from the banks with special functions to the commercial banks (sub-group regional banks and other commercial banks) and the subsequent transfer from the regional banks to the big banks at the end of 2004.
  
  - The transfer in 2000 of the DSL-Bank from the banks with special functions to the commercial banks (sub-group regional banks).
  
  - The transfer of HypoVereinsbank from the sub-group of regional banks to the sub-group of big banks in 1999 and the full integration into HypoVereinsbank of Vereins- und Westbank in 2004 (inclusion of the corresponding balance sheet items in the big banks sub-group as of the end of 2004).
  
  - Part of the retail banking operations of Deutsche Bank was hived off in 1999 to Deutsche Bank 24 (now Deutsche Bank Privat- und Geschäftskunden AG). This resulted in a corresponding transfer of branches and balance sheet items from the big banks to the regional banks in the same year.
  
  - The merger in 1999 between SüdwestLB, Landesgirokasse Stuttgart and the commercial banking unit of Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg to form Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, with corresponding transfers between the categories of savings banks and Landesbanks.
  
  - The inclusion in 1999 of the building and loan associations in the banking sector (in a dedicated category). Transactions between the other banks and the building and loan associations, which were classed as transactions with non-banks until the end of 1998, have since been included in the figures for transactions with banks.
  
  - The separate reporting of loans on a trust basis since 1999. As a result, the volume of bank loans to domestic non-banks, particularly to domestic enterprises, fell by over 70 billion euros in 1999.
  
  - The transfer of the NRW.Bank from the Landesbanks to the banks with special functions.
  
  
• One of the results of these changes is that the banks’ total assets grew by 147 billion euros in statistical terms in 1999 (inclusion of the building and loan associations). At the same time, loans to enterprises declined by just over 50 billion euros (separate reporting of trust loans and inclusion of the building and loan associations in the banking sector), while loans to individuals increased by about the same amount (inclusion of the building and loan associations). On the deposits side, deposits held by non-banks were over 60 billion euros higher (mainly due to the inclusion of deposits with building and loan associations).
• The total assets of the big banks increased by around 205 billion euros in 1999 as a result of banks transferring between bank categories (inclusion of HypoVereinsbank, the exclusion of some of the retail banking operations of Deutsche Bank), while those of the regional banks decreased by 130 billion euros (exclusion of HypoVereinsbank, inclusion of Postbank and some of the retail banking operations of Deutsche Bank). The total assets of the Landesbanks rose by 13 billion euros (merger in Baden-Württemberg) and those of the banks with special functions fell by 72 billion euros (exclusion of Postbank, among other things). 2000 saw an increase of around 80 billion euros in the total assets of the commercial banks, mainly as a result of the takeover by Postbank of DSL-Bank and its transfer from the sub-group of banks with special functions to that of the regional banks. There was a corresponding drop in the total assets of the banks with special functions.
• In view of these redefinitions, the adjusted changes published by the Bundesbank can provide reliable information only about the development of specific balance sheet items from one year to another, whereby it is assumed that the statistical breaks have not taken place. It is essential to take the transfers between categories and sub-groups into account. They can considerably impair the information value of the data. This applies particularly to the regional banks and the banks with special functions. This goes especially for the analysis of long-term trends.