GERMANY TEMPERING SUCCESS WITH CAUTION
Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank (DG Bank), the central bank for a vast
credit co-operative system that has outperformed all other banking
groups over the last quarter century, is heading for another bumper year
after posting its best ever results in 1985. But in one crucial
business -- the consortial placement of securities -- the bank sees
itself hobbled by discriminatory quotas that favour its competitors.
DG Bank chairman, Helmut Guthardt, who announced in late May that
his bank's global operating earnings had surged ahead by at least
one-third in the first five months of 1986 after rising by one-fifth in
all of 1985, also seized the occasion to vent his frustration at the
West German Finance Ministry over the quota issue.
Causus belli for Guthardt was the fact that the credit co-operative
sector was assigned a placement quota of just 5% in the public offering
of 40% of the...
