Which developments, opportunities and prospects shaped the banking industry?
In our “Research & Markets” section, we occasionally offer you a look into our current zeb study publications. In 2025, we were able to present four of our zeb studies and provide you with insights into trend analyses and research reports. If you are interested, feel free to have a look at our “CFO Study”, our “Regional Banking Study Austria”, our “Corporate Banking Study” and our “European Asset Management Study” (German only).
An established series of articles on economic developments in our Research & Markets section is the zeb.market.flash. In this format, we present a quarterly overview of developments at the world’s largest banks. You can find the latest issue focusing on the improvement of the transatlantic economy here (a long version of the report is available for download at the end of the article).
In the second quarter, you showed great interest in our article on the monitoring and review of real estate collateral (German only). Monitoring and review are key components of risk management in the lending business that in practice often present institutions with major challenges.
In June 2025, our authors took a look at the effects of the envisaged special depreciation allowance for electric vehicles on leasing companies in Germany. The article focuses on analyzing opportunities and risks this regulation presents for leasing companies, and addresses in particular balance sheet implications, residual value risks and potential market distortions. Additionally, our authors offer up strategic recommendations for leasing companies so that they can adapt to the new tax environment and remain competitive.
Energy efficiency and sustainability have become key issues in almost all branches of economic activity in recent years. Both topics are also gaining in importance in the area of real estate financing, particularly with regard to legal requirements and the handling of energy performance certificates. This raises complex questions for banks and, more specifically, their managers: How can the requirements be met efficiently, what challenges need to be overcome and what (sales) opportunities does a proactive approach to energy performance certificates offer? Our article on energy performance certificates in real estate financing (German only) gives you an insight into the regulatory framework, operational challenges and sales opportunities.
How are volumes and sales figures trending, and what’s happening to margins? How are (digital) competitors cementing their presence at critical customer touchpoints? In the article “Market analysis – volumes up, margins down” (German only), our authors show you the most important overarching market developments. The main focus lies on the role of digital competitors in the securities and mortgage lending markets.
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Which regulatory frameworks and innovations need to be taken into account?
In our overall most-read category “Bank management”, you will once again find a whole series of exciting articles on the latest regulatory changes and requirements that have gripped your attention this year.
At the end of January 2025, the ECB cut its key interest rate for the fifth time to 2.75%. These extreme market fluctuations are challenging regional banks to fundamentally rethink their interest rate book strategies. But how can banks not only react to such developments but also anticipate them? Our article on interest rate risk management goes beyond a mere review, it shows how regional banks can proactively exploit opportunities and minimize risk through net interest income splitting, modern management tools and forward-looking interest exposure book management. The article focuses on actionable recommendations that help banks remain resilient and sustainably successful in a volatile market environment.
On February 11, 2025, the European Banking Authority (EBA) released its final report and a corresponding press release, announcing updates to its guidelines for the management of ICT and security risks. In the article on the ICT risk guidelines, our authors give you a brief overview of the regulatory realignment.
How can carbon accounting be implemented efficiently by savings banks and cooperative banks? In our BankingHub article on the topic series “CO2 accounting and decarbonization at financial institutions”, we take a look at carbon accounting with a focus on the perspective of regional banks (German only) and link this to our practical zeb experience.
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) has updated its principles for the management of credit risks. These updated guidelines for supervisory authorities are intended to ensure that banks establish appropriate and effective procedures for identifying, assessing, managing and monitoring credit risks. The principles, published in April 2025, therefore include several technical adjustments to align them with the current Basel framework and the latest guidelines. These adjustments aim to enhance the effectiveness of credit risk management without altering the core content of the principles. You can find insights into the main updates to the guidelines in the article linked above.
The prolonged low-interest rate phase prompted many banks to diversify their business models – often by investing in proprietary real estate business. What began as a supplement to traditional treasury operations evolved into a high-yield, yet increasingly complex and risk-laden business segment at some institutions. Our article on this topic is structured according to the requirements set out in BTO 3 MaRisk (German only). Each section addresses the established regulations and explores them in greater depth.
Following the government bill passed on September 3, 2025, to implement the Consumer Credit Directive (EU) 2023/2225, Germany is establishing a binding legal framework that compels banks to fundamentally align their lending processes, product portfolios and compliance structures with new EU consumer protection standards. Our article on the Consumer Credit Directive 2026 (German only) provides information on the objectives, the main regulatory content and the resulting actions that bank need to take.
What are the HR and digital trends in the financial sector?
Digitalization, a shortage of skilled workers and the younger generation’s desire for meaning and self-efficacy call for flexible working models and new management styles.
New Work goes beyond changes in premises and aims to further develop hierarchical organizations in such a way that innovation skills, innovation output and the companies’ adaptability are increased. Our linked article takes a closer look at the concept and principles behind New Work.
Working time has become a decisive competitive factor for success. Those who want to attract talent, retain top performers and work efficiently at the same time need a systematic working time concept (German only). In practice, the focus is often too strongly on rigid case-by-case solutions. In the linked article, our authors explain why guard rails that reconcile customer benefits, address employee needs and profitability are needed instead. This is not just about reducing working time, but also about flexible models in terms of working hours as well as place and distribution of work. It is about freely selecting weekly working time options, distributing work over 4, 5 or 6 days and benefiting from flextime and focus times, remote working as well as options to switch according to life phases.
In the financial sector in particular, there is growing pressure to develop a modern leadership culture. It is time then to rethink leadership, move away from control, toward clarity and trust; away from rigid structures, toward responsibility and efficacy. In this article, we show what Leadership 4.0 (German only) is all about, why traditional leadership models are reaching their limits and how modern leadership can succeed in practice: through clarity, courage and a new understanding of management roles.
Roughly 15% of Germany’s population – over 12 million individuals – fall within the 14 to 27 age group. Numerous industries are focusing their efforts on this generation. For banks, however, the stakes are particularly high. They can either win over this technology-savvy, digitally connected, independent and critical target group for the long haul – or risk losing it permanently. Find out how regional banks can retain these young customers (German only) by clicking the link.
The finance and insurance industry stands at the brink of a profound technological transformation. At the heart of this shift are AI agents – software-based systems that use machine learning, natural language processing and predictive analytics to automate complex processes and enable data-driven decisions.
What role do AI agents play in the finance and insurance industry (German only) and how are they structured? What was once considered an experimental technology is now a strategic imperative for banks, insurers and financial services providers worldwide. To find out how AI-based input systems, analysis modules and action mechanisms are changing the finance and insurance industry, how they are structured and which key technologies they use, click on the linked article.
Digital twins (German only) combine real-time data, simulations and artificial intelligence to create virtual representations of processes, infrastructures or client systems. They enable precise risk modeling, well-founded decision simulation and early identification of complex dependencies. But how exactly can digital twins be applied effectively in the financial industry? This article highlights real-life application areas and shows which prerequisites must be fulfilled for digital twins to realize their full potential as a strategic management tool.
What were the top articles of 2025?
To conclude our review of this year’s releases, we would like to highlight the top three most-read articles.
I) Requirements for IRBA models for credit risks (German only)
On July 28, 2025, the ECB published the updated version of its “ECB guide to internal models”, or “EGIM 2025” for short. In this and other publications, the ECB takes account of current focus topics, such as climate risks, machine learning (ML) approaches and CRR III.
In the most-read article, our authors Christian Witte, Timo Dähler, Jonas Schneider and Lukas Schubart contextualize the developments regarding the requirements for IRBA models for credit risks and highlight key implications from zeb’s perspective.
II) Regional banks and their business model – from strength to strength or back to long-forgotten challenges? (German only)
How did business model analysis become a regulatory requirement for banks? What business advantages result from business model analysis? What role do profitability and business segment analyses play?
Our experts Dr. Robert Ellenbeck, Benedikt Brandt, Simone Stöckler, Lennart Book and Jacob Drilling provide answers in the second most-read article on the regional bank business model.
III) Regulatory relief for small banks – what is the real benefit of the alleged relief? (German only)
Against the background of the reporting on planned regulatory relief for small banks, the comments by zeb’s own Dr. Ulf Morgenstern, Timo Franke, Tim Möllenbeck and Gabriel Schollmeyer on the associated opportunities and challenges represent an initial classification of the proposals.
A step ahead in banking – even during our winter break
As you can see in our review of the most-read BankingHub articles of 2025, this banking year had various interesting topics in store. However, as we can only give you a brief glimpse in the context of this article, we invite you to browse through our sections Research & Markets, Finance & Risk, Innovation & Digital, Human Resources, Operations as well as our Topics and our Interviews. For now, we are taking our winter break from editorial work until mid-January.
We wish you a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones and look forward to inspire you with captivating specialist articles and interviews again next year. Until then, we wish you happy holidays and the best of health in the coming year!
