While on the one hand a private person is checked down to the pants when taking out a loan, on the other hand sometimes large loans seem to go without this check and the money is actually given directly.
If you read the news about SIGNA, you get the worrying feeling that there was little to very strict control and that the loans were granted relatively carelessly. In this context, I remembered an interview with Jürgen Schneider that we published on Die Immobilien-Redaktion on February 25, 2013. It was kindly made available to us at the time by our cooperation partner ILM Real Estate Life Cycle Management. (https://immobilien-redaktion.com/categories/uncategorized/artikel/die-gier-nach-geld-bleibt)
As a reminder for those who cannot immediately identify the name Jürgen Schneider: The real estate entrepreneur, who was born in Frankfurt in 1934, renovated historical buildings in the 1980s, especially at the time of reunification – on a large scale. Well-known banks, especially Deutsche Bank, were involved. However, only he, Jürgen Schneider, was convicted of the billion-dollar bankruptcy in 1994, which caused a huge stir. After being arrested and sentenced to six years and nine months in prison, he was sent to prison in 1995. He was released from prison in 1999. He said in 2013: “The verdict was fair, I have no hesitation at all about talking about it openly. My biggest mistake was: I wanted too much, I had to take stock of the future. Today I tell my clients when I advise them: Be careful, be careful, be careful! I made a mistake back then. The only difference was that the banks got away with it at the time. That wasn’t okay, but it wasn’t feasible at the time.”
Here are excerpts from the interview from 2013, which definitely show parallels to the current situation surrounding SIGNA…
Jürgen Schneider: The topic of my trial back in 1995 is actually still relevant today, in 2013; or rather, everything has gotten much worse. This is because of the banking system we have. As a Deutsche Bank board member was quoted as saying at the time: ‘Schlitzohr Schneider got behind the system.’ With that he said and later repeated in the trial what had actually happened: I had recognized how the banks work, how the system works – and I took advantage of that.
Please explain that!
Jürgen Schneider: I wanted to build houses and needed a lot of money to do it. My interest was in the houses – mostly historic houses, architectural antiques. That was one side. The banks, on the other hand, wanted to give big loans – for houses that they could show off. And there were decent bonuses to be won and good money to be made. That was their interest. My interest was the houses.
A perfect interaction?
Jürgen Schneider: That’s it, perfect. Banks will always try to exploit their options. That’s what I experienced back then: The Schneider system only became possible because the banks circumvented their own regulations. (…)
Are some banks behaving better today – in 2013?
Jürgen Schneider: Yes, they learned from it, but the basic principle remains: the greed for money, the desire to win bonuses. In business you just want to make money.
So is it a systemic problem?
Jürgen Schneider: Not just system-specific, but also inherent to people.”
CONCLUSION: Maybe things will be different in 2024. To quote Karl Raimund Popper, the Austro-British philosopher: “There is no rational alternative to optimism.”
Last but not least, I would like to point out a press release from the real estate editorial team. I found a really good comment in the “Tiroler Tageszeitung” that is definitely worth reading:
2024-01-04 06:03:43
#greed #money #remains #power #learning #ability #banks
