71.   Growing awareness that minimum reserves were a competitive handicap for German banks led the Bundesbank to relax the rules in several steps.

72.   Given the trend until now for German banks to expand internationally through full acquisitions, analysts said this is the most likely route Vereinsbank will take.

73.   German banks are also jumping on the bandwagon.

74.   German banks are expected to report higher six-month earnings starting this week, as a rising stock market boosts trading and commission income.

75.   German banks are likely to accompany their corporate clients to Russia, Hain said.

76.   German banks are poised to coalesce.

77.   German banks may suffer the most.

78.   German banks still dominate the market.

79.   German banks, meanwhile, have heavy exposure to Russia.

80.   He has also demanded that a European political authority be established to balance the power of the European central bank, an insistence that worries the German bank.