Dr. Patrick Opdenhövel, State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, was invited to the zeb Tower in Münster as part of the regular “zeb Financial Market Roundtable” event organized by zeb. The State Secretary talked with chief executive officers of banks and insurance companies about the direction and outlooks of North Rhine-Westphalia's fiscal policy.

He made it clear that the federal state was facing various challenges. Opdenhövel described the top maxim of the new government under Prime Minister Armin Laschet: “In North Rhine-Westphalia we want to consistently implement the fiscal triad, that is consolidate, modernize, invest. The 2018 budget and the black zero (editor’s note: balanced budget) already reached this year are a first step in this direction. We are maintaining the debt brake, this is our high-level goal,” Opdenhövel explained.

Later on, the lively discussion also focused on the banking and insurance market in North Rhine-Westphalia. The CEOs called upon politicians to strengthen the “proven three-pillar model of the banking industry” by supporting banks and savings banks in order to “unchain” them from overly strict regulatory and consumer protection requirements.

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