AFP - German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle pressed banks again on Wednesday to increase lending as the government named a "credit mediator" to boost the number of business loans.

Bruederle urged banks to "fulfill their duties" to the wider economy in an interview with the public television channel ZDF.

"Taxpayers extended generous aide to help you avoid bankruptcy," he said in reference to massive state aid extended to the troubled banking sector a year ago.

Financial institutions now had ample leeway to increase lending, the economy minister added.

His ministry later announced that Hans-Joachim Metternich had been named as a credit mediator to help Germany's small and medium-sized enterprises obtain loans needed to fund their operations.

Metternich would work in Frankfurt and be charged with "compiling complaints from companies seeking external funding and finding constructive solutions with credit institutions," a statement said.

France has already created such a position "with great success," Bruederle noted.

Metternich is currently head of the public investment bank for the western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and would begin examining cases in March, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, a summit was planned in Berlin later on Wednesday with representatives from companies, federations and unions to discuss the threat of a credit crunch in Europe's biggest economy.

Bruederle and Chancellor Angela Merkel have both warned that a generalised credit crunch was possible next year.

Capital Economics economist Jennifer McKeown noted that in its last Financial Stability Report, the German central bank said German banks might still have to write off 90 billion euros (135 billion dollars) in losses on loans and securitised instruments.

The would imply "that the sector is not even halfway through its potential losses," McKeown said.

She added however that "for the time being at least, German banks? losses have been much smaller than those elsewhere, amounting to about two percent of GDP (gross domestic product) compared to around four percent in the US and UK."