Compensation claim
In connection with the currency reform of 1948 , demands for compensation were created in the currency legislation on the Deutsche Mark in the western occupation zones of Germany . Claims for compensation were also created within the framework of the opening DM balance sheets in the GDR on the occasion of the currency, economic and social union on July 1, 1990.
Compensation claims from the 1948 currency reform
character
Compensation claims are a special type of public sector debt, i.e. of the federal states and the then unified economic area (legal successor Federal Republic of Germany) that were allocated to the credit institutions and insurance companies in connection with the currency reform . These are debt register claims, i. H. Long-term receivables for which, with a few exceptions, there was previously no obligation to repay . The creditors were the former Bank deutscher Länder (legal successor Deutsche Bundesbank ), the state central banks, credit institutions, postal savings banks , insurance companies and building societies .
Causes and design of the compensation claims
The assets of the creditor resulting in large part from claims against the former German Reich , which in contrast to the liabilities not German marks converted and were therefore unusable. The liabilities side of the balance sheets of the above-mentioned institutes was not devalued to the same extent as their assets side, but converted in a ratio of 6.5: 100, sometimes 1:10. The credit institutions received 15% of the value of the Reichsmark for sight deposits and 7.5% for savings . The resulting gap on the assets side of the balance sheets or the need for value adjustments was covered in the Deutsche Mark opening balance sheet by a compensation claim. In the balance sheets of commercial banks and insurance companies they were to be entered at their face value , at which they were also to be traded between credit and insurance companies. In the balance sheet of the Deutsche Bundesbank, they represented the balance sheet counterpart for the refurbishment of the public corporations and the banking sector during the currency reform and the head and business amounts paid out with the new central bank money.
Interest and repayment
Compensation claims were paid a low interest rate of 3 to 4.5% and were repaid, depending on the term (25 to 47 years). At the Deutsche Bundesbank there was a special fund for the purchase of the equalization claims, with which the equalization claims against creditors in the banking and non-banking sectors were repaid, while they remained unchanged in the balance sheet of the Deutsche Bundesbank at DM 8.1 billion from the central bank . From 1956 onwards, the interest-bearing equalization claims were repaid semi-annually at 0.5%, non-interest-bearing equalization claims at 2% every six months plus the interest saved by the progressive repayment from the Bundesbank profits within 37 years.
When, in the mid- 1950s, there was hardly any possibility of a contractive open market policy due to the insufficient volume of open market paper , the Bank Deutscher Länder proposed to the finance minister that part of the compensation claim be mobilized , i.e. That is, they were exchanged for treasury bills and non-interest-bearing treasury notes (= U-treasures) (= mobilization papers). Later, the amended section 42 of the Bundesbank Act opened the right of the Deutsche Bundesbank to deliver up to a nominal amount of DM 8.1 billion. On June 14, 1967 , the Act to Promote Stability and Growth of the Economy came into force the previously mentioned right of the Bundesbank to deliver mobilization papers amounting to DM 8.1 billion granted it the additional handing over of Treasury bills and non-interest-bearing Treasury notes amounting to an additional DM 8.1 billion (liquidity paper) for open market policy.
Compensation claims from the introduction of the D-Mark in the GDR
root cause
The revaluation of the assets in the DM opening balance sheets on July 1, 1990 would have resulted in negative equity in many cases due to the revaluation of the assets and the conversion of the financial liabilities in a ratio of 2: 1. It would not have been possible to enter the state- owned enterprises converted into corporations into the commercial register . To avoid this, the companies received compensation claims against the Treuhandanstalt (§ 24 DMBilG).
If the assets exceeded the property, plant and equipment minus the land, a compensation liability was set in the excess amount. However, that was practically rare.
Special features for foreign trade companies and financial institutions
In the case of foreign trade companies and financial institutions (banks, savings banks and insurance companies) in the GDR, the compensation claims were not directed against the Treuhandanstalt, but against the compensation fund for currency conversion. Foreign trade companies received compensation claims in such an amount that their debts were covered, financial institutions in the amount that was necessary to cover the debts, an equity ratio of 4% of the balance sheet total and, under Principle I, a utilization of at most 13 times ( Section 40 of the German Mark Balance Sheet Act).
See also: mobilization paper , liquidity paper