The economic and political environment was extra­ordinarily difficult in 2022. How do you see the year? TD The past year was characterized by a complex “risk cocktail” consisting of high inflation, rising interest rates, an energy crisis, disrupted supply chains and, of course, the geopolitically very tense situation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, some elements of which are still being felt. We have not had a combination of challenges of this magnitude in over a decade. I would say there hasn’t been a comparable scenario since 2008, the year of the major financial market crisis, when the underlying conditions were negative in a different way, but similarly toxic. How has this difficult situation affected Hamburg Commercial Bank’s portfolio? TD Our portfolio has proven to be very robust so far. We have even been able to reduce the portfolio of non-performing exposures (NPEs) by €62 million year-on-year to €405 million; the NPE-ratio has fallen from 1.4 to 1.2 percent. This was achieved because very few NPEs were added in 2022 and, in parallel, we reduced NPEs totaling €150 million. Are there further risks that will be reduced in 2023? TD Yes, we have also set up an NPE action plan this year. We plan to reduce defaulted loans to the amount of €215 million euros. These are loans that we believe we can either successfully restructure or sell, for example. In general, the bank has set aside a high allowance for losses on loans and advances. As of Dec. 31, 2022 we had an NPE coverage ratio of 69 percent, and that was solely from risk provisioning, excluding the collateral that is added – so we are in a very good position. Why did Hamburg Commercial Bank’s portfolio prove so stable during the crisis, and what distinguishes it? TD One reason for the low losses is that we were very careful when concluding transactions, and we have many good commitments in our portfolio that were not strongly affected by the crisis or even benefited from it. I am thinking, for example, of renewable energies, but also of shipping, where rates for container ships in particular were very high. Among other things, ships were backed up at ports, which led to a shortage. In Commercial Real Estate, however, higher interest rates and higher construction costs could have a negative impact this year – that’s the reason why we didn’t do one or two deals in this area in 2022. In Corporates, we focused on what we do best as a specialist financier: individually structured financing. The bank also used 2022 to internationalize itself in the Corporates business as well as Commercial Real Estate. We are active in Western and Northern Europe, as well as in the UK and US. This serves to diversify our loan portfolio, which in turn helps to make it even more robust.