Macro-prudential oversight "can take two directions": it may focus on increasing the resilience of individual banks, or put greater emphasis on reducing ‘procyclicality' in the financial system as a whole, Bundesbank deputy president Sabine Lautenschläger said in a speech last week.

"Before the crisis, the motto was: if all is well at the individual institutions, all will be well with the system. Attention centred on the micro level; the macro level was not monitored and evaluated systematically