Recent comments by Jochen Sanio, Germany’s chief financial regulator, paint a possibly gloomier picture for the country’s economy, the Telegraph reported. In them, he said that the toxic debts on the balance sheets of many of his nation’s banks are “like a grenade” which are ready to explode if a series of “brutal” downgrades of mortgage backed securities by the rating agencies occurs. An internal memo circulating through his office stated that write-offs of these assets are likely to reach €816 billion.