The consolidation process in the German banking sector continued in 2017. Over the course of the year, the overall number of credit institutions fell by 65 to 1,823. This corresponds to a 3.4% decline compared with a drop of 3.7% in 2016.

Germany’s outward foreign direct investment (FDI) stocks grew at a significantly slower rate in 2016 than they did one year earlier on account of smaller positive exchange rate effects as well as a lower volume of new equity investments. Inward FDI in Germany expanded at just a subdued pace, much as it had done in the previous years.

In the first quarter of 2018, German credit institutions eased their credit standards in all three loan categories. This is revealed by the latest Bank Lending Survey (BLS) conducted among banks domiciled in Germany.

At the end of 2017, German households’ financial assets amounted to €5,857 billion, up by €78 billion, or 1.4%, on the third quarter of the year.

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