The tremendous growth of markets for credit derivatives since the mid 1990's has raised questions regarding the role of these instruments in the banking in- dustry which is heavily exposed to credit risk. However, while recent literature mainly focused on pricing and optimal decisions regarding...

Germany's banking sector has been severely hit by the global financial crisis. In a German context as of February, 2009, this paper reviews briefly the structure of the banking industry, quantifies effects of the crisis on banks and surveys responses of economic policy. It is argued that policy...