Bernd Lüthje

Bernd Lüthje (born September 26, 1939 in Hamburg ) is a German economist and manager .

Act

Since 1959 studies of economics at the University of Hamburg , u. a. with Karl Schiller , Harald Jürgensen and Werner Ehrlicher (economists) . 1969 doctorate on "The functionality of the German stock exchange", in this Lüthje dealt with the philosophy- based method of determining functional capabilities and applied it to economics by using it for problem solving using the example of the stock exchange.

• 1964 to 1966 Hamburg Chamber of Commerce
• 1967 to 1970 German Chamber of Commerce and Industry , Bonn
• 1970 to 1971 Federal Association of the Private Banking Industry, today Federal Association of German Banks , Cologne
• 1972 to 1973 Commerzbank , Frankfurt
• 1974 to 1989 WestLB -Girozentrale, Düsseldorf / Münster, there since 1982 general representative, head of the companies department
• 1990 to 2002 managing director of the Federal Association of Public Banks in Germany (VÖB), Bonn, from 1999 Berlin
• 1992 founding chairman of the Landesbank Sachsen
• 2000 initiator of the European Association of Public Banks , Brussels
• 2002 board member of WestLB
• 2002 to 2005 founding chairman of the Landesbank NRW , since 2004 NRW.BANK
• 2002 to 2004 member of the supervisory board and chairman of the supervisory board of WestLB AG
• 2002 to 2008 member of the supervisory board, since 2005 honorary supervisory board chairman of the state development company NRW , with the task of restructuring and privatizing it
• Since 2007 member of the advisory board of the Institute for the Public Sector , Berlin
• Employed on the project of an investment and development bank for Hamburg since 2009, also on a voluntary basis
• 2010 member of Finanzplatz Hamburg eV
• April 2011 to July 7, 2011 Chairman of the Supervisory Board of IKOR Management- und Systemberatung GmbH, Oberhausen / Hamburg
• Since July 8, 2011, a voluntary member of the group that is preparing the establishment of the “Hamburg Investment and Development Bank” under the leadership of the tax authorities of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

Basel II - Opposition

In his work as managing director of the VÖB , he rejected the drafts of Basel II on the following grounds: The mathematization of the banking business displaces the real economic fundamentals and leads to wrong decisions, solely to obtain relief from the banking supervisory authority with regard to capital allocation. Another consequence is that customers with ratings of A and below are disproportionately burdened or even excluded from lending. Excessive market regulation leads to circumvention of the Basel II regulations or to fraud, including the establishment of finance companies that are not subject to banking supervision.

Lüthje advocates a comprehensive reform of the Banking Act , as it has become inapplicable in its current form and is more of a hindrance than it promotes efficient banking supervision.

“It must be possible to follow and comply with laws - in such a way that the text does not first have to be interpreted together with many experts and then the interpretation has to be coordinated with the supervisory authority. The KWG in its current bloated form is no longer applicable, i.e. no longer controllable. Any extension of the regulatory framework for banks increases the possibilities of circumvention, including easily disguised fraud, from which regulatory arbitrage , as it is foggy called, can be achieved. The financing of subprimes (mortgage debtors with low creditworthiness) via special purpose vehicles is one of many examples of how you can use regulations and behave legally "

Lüthje sees a large part of the blame for the last economic crisis in the structures of state solvency supervision and global banking regulation : “ The question of responsibility, and thus the question of guilt, cannot be answered here, as there is no one responsible. The seemingly legalistic banking supervisory system consists of many offices with uncontrolled relationships with one another, ministries with authority to issue instructions, interest-based control boards and commissions operating across Europe and around the world. The parliaments with their control are largely hidden "

Understanding II

Lüthje is jointly responsible for the understanding II between the Federal Government and the EU Commission in 2002, which enabled and triggered the current structure of investment and development banks in Germany. With the Understanding II, this type of bank was assigned the institutional burden , the guarantor liability and the state refinancing guarantees under EU state aid law.

Banking guidelines

On June 16, 2010, Lüthje rejected the “Draft of a law to implement the amended Banking Directive and the amended Capital Adequacy Directive”. The draft law will not enable the supervisory authorities to prevent undesirable developments in the future and increase the resistance of the financial system to market distortions, as the German government claims.

Restructuring Act

On October 6, 2010, Lüthje subjected the Federal Government's draft of the “Restructuring Act” to a practical test and considered it practicable. His suggestion to adapt the rehabilitation process to the behavior in reality was accepted.

Lüthje has lived in Hamburg since 2008. He is married and has three children.

Fonts (selection)

• The functionality of the German stock exchange. Goettingen 1970.
• The private and the public - the antithesis belongs together in banking. In: Banks and Public Contracts. Bonn 1995, pp. 9-42.
• Founding thinking as a strategic banking starting point. In: Bankstrategy 2000. Bonn 1993.
• Creative Destruction and New Economy. In: Banking, Public Sector and Financial Market Policy. Font for Friedel Neuber. Berlin 2001, pp. 7-35.
• Thinking about the collective agreement and the banking world. In: 15 years of collective bargaining for public banks. Berlin 2001, pp. 23-55.
• Y. Bellavite-Hövermann, G. Lindner, B. Lüthje (Eds.): Guide for the Supervisory Board . Stuttgart 2005.
• Today's management economy versus free financial centers. A sketch. In: Yearbook 2011/2012 of Finanzplatz Hamburg eV Hamburg 2011, pp. 20–21.
• The incapacitated interest and the metropolitan region of Hamburg. In: 2012/2013 yearbook of Finanzplatz Hamburg eV Hamburg 2012, pp. 28–29.
• Law thunderstorm over the financial center Hamburg. In: Yearbook 2013/2014 of Finanzplatz Hamburg eV Hamburg 2013, pp. 22–23.
• Basel Four: The End of the Basel Regime. 1st edition. Bwv - Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-8305-3258-3 .
• Financial guardian - financial center - cemetery peace. In: 2014/2015 yearbook of Finanzplatz Hamburg eV Hamburg 2014, pp. 26–27.

Web links

• Article "Experts Against New Financial Market Supervision Act" at compliancemagazin.de
• Photo by Bernd Lüthje on manager-magazin.de
• ARD documentary "The decline of WestLB megalomania and self-service (first broadcast on October 15, 2012 WDR television)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lüthje, B. The functionality of the German stock exchange. Göttingen, 1970, p. 45 ff.
2. ↑ WestLB.lu: WestLB Presidential Committee recommends appointment of Dr. Bernd Lüthje on the CEO of the future Landesbank NRW ( Memento of the original from November 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , April 10, 2002, viewed November 1, 2009 5:28 pm 
3. ↑ State Parliament internal (NRW), 3/2004, p. 15.
4. ^ Welt am Sonntag, July 27, 2003.
5. ↑ Bernd Lüthje in the Munzinger archive , accessed on September 15, 2009 ( beginning of article freely available)
6. ↑ Börsen-Zeitung, September 25, 2009, p. 7.
7. ↑ finanzplatz-hamburg.com
8. ↑ Finance Committee of the German Bundestag, printed matter 16/12783, May 27, 2009.
9. ↑ Please take a pause to think about the Banking Act. Börsen-Zeitung, Monday, December 28, 2009, p. 4.
10. ↑ Financial market crisis - who is responsible. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 16, 2008, p. 40.
11. ^ The Understandings I and II - turning point for the German banks. In: Festschrift for Eberhard Schwark, Munich 2009, p. 511 ff.
12. ↑ uni-protokolle.de: public role to banks in the European banking industry: Bernd Lüthje at the University of Leipzig
13. ↑ Berlin House of Representatives, printed matter 15/2603, p. 1.
14. ↑ Finance Committee of the German Bundestag, printed matter 17/1720, June 16, 2010.
15. ↑ Finance Committee of the German Bundestag, printed matter 17/3024, October 6, 2010.