The risk of a systemic crisis, as it occurred in 2007 and 2008, is considered by the CEO of Deutsche Bank, Christian Sewing, to be extremely low. As President of the Association of German Banks (BdB), he referred to the regulatory measures following the financial crisis in a video conference to journalists on Monday. "The financial industry is much more robust and resilient than it was at the time of the global financial crisis 15 years ago," he said. The problems of the Silicon Valley Bank and other U.S. regional banks could not be transferred to the European banking sector, and Credit Suisse had ultimately become the victim of a special situation that did not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the state of the European banking industry.

Sewing attributed the special case of Credit Suisse, which had to be taken over by its domestic competitor UBS with the backing of the Swiss government, to a lack of trust, similar to the Silicon Valley Bank. In his opinion, Credit Suisse's situation has become difficult because the market has questioned sustainable profitability. It is an absolute prerequisite to prove profitability even in difficult times. In addition, fears of recession, high inflation and the ongoing war in Europe have further exacerbated the situation.

Sewing does not see the fact that Credit Suisse needed liquidity support from the state and the central bank as an indication that the rules for the resolution of large banks are inadequate. In his opinion, considerable progress has been made on the issue of "too big to fail", according to which large institutions can never go under because of their high importance in the financial market and therefore have to be rescued with state funds.

Sewing sees four points as necessary for the stability of the banking system. First, he cited a strong equity base: regulators on both sides of the Atlantic had done a good job here. As a second point, he cited liquidity: "This was one of the significant weaknesses of Silicon Valley Bank." In the U.S., Sewing said, less stringent regulations apply to institutions below a certain size. They are not subject to the so-called liquidity coverage ratio provided for major US banks – and for European banks of all sizes. Sewing sees this as a specific issue of regulation in the United States, which has been unilaterally softened for the regional banks.

On the third point, the broad and stable deposit base, the bank president also referred to Silicon Valley Bank. There, the deposits were concentrated on a very homogeneous group of customers, and around 90 percent were larger than 250,000 dollars – and thus not protected by the state deposit insurance. Finally, Sewing emphasized the importance of a working business model that is capable of generating sustainable profits. He sees the viability of the business model as a prerequisite for customer trust.