ECB's Weber: Banks Must Lower Their Profit Expectations
FRANKFURT -(Dow Jones)- Commercial banks should lower their profit
expectations in times of low interest rates rather than take on extra risk to
meet unrealistic targets, Deutsche Bundesbank president Axel Weber said Friday.
Weber, a member of the European Central Bank's governing council, told a
banking conference that "banks have to adjust down their profit aspirations" in
times of low growth and low rates.
Some German banks, notably the larger, stock market-listed ones, have
irritated policy-makers by continuing to promise high returns on equity in the
wake of the crisis, in contrast to the government's and regulators' preference
for reducing risk in the financial system.
-By Geoffrey T. Smith, Dow Jones Newswires (+49 160) 743 4090; geoffrey.smith@
dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-20-090448ET
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