FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank chief Christian Sewing, painting a bleaker assessment of the Germany economy, on Wednesday warned that China was a considerable risk for the nation and that Europe needed big banks to fend off American competitors.
Sewing, speaking at a conference in Frankfurt, said Germany would “no longer be able to avert a recession”.
He said the country must now face the “awkward question” of dealing with China, given its “increasing isolation and growing tensions”.
“Reducing this dependency will require a change no less fundamental than decoupling from Russian energy,” Sewing said.
Sewing renewed calls for eventual cross-board banking consolidation in Europe.
“Size counts in banking – and if we don’t want to hand over the playing field to the Americans, Europe must create the right conditions for big banks,” he said.
“The dominance of American banks is no law of nature,” he added.
(Reporting by Tom Sims and Marta Orosz; Editing by Paul Carrel)
