Correspondent Banking

Pursuant to section 3 of the Bundesbank Act, one of the mandated duties of the Bundesbank is to arrange for the execution of domestic and international payments. For this purpose, the Bundesbank has a network of correspondent banking relationships. In addition to the around 200 euro accounts that the Bundesbank holds itself for foreign business partners, it maintains roughly 65 foreign currency accounts abroad for payment settlement.

Account holders involved in correspondent banking can belong to the following counterparty categories

• Foreign commercial banks
• Central banks, monetary authorities and governments as well as
• International organisations

Account management at the Bundesbank is characterised by the following features

• Accounts managed solely in euro
• No account management fees are levied
• There is no obligation to maintain a certain minimum credit balance
• Accounts are managed exclusively on a credit balance basis
• Interest will be paid on the account balance depending on the counterparty

The detailed terms and conditions for foreign commercial banks can be called up using the link to “Terms and conditions” contained in the menu on the left hand side of the page.

The AML questionnaire, which is to be filled in only by seperately notified correspondent banks, can be downloaded below.

For information on the range of services offered by the Bundesbank with respect to euro reserve management for foreign central banks and monetary authorities as well as international organisations please refer to http://www.bundesbank.de/zentralbankservice/zentralbankservice.en.php.

The Directory of foreign correspondent banks can be called up under "Customer access mechanism".

Monthly CAM Invoice

Correspondents are issued with a CAM invoice on a monthly basis. This invoice lists the fees being charged for payments settled using the CAM according to the currently applicable interest rate and price schedule.

The interest rate and price schedule for foreign commercial banks can be found on the left hand side in the protected customer area, “Terms and Conditions”.

If you have any questions, please contact our Customer Services section for payment systems and account management at

• +49 69 9566 4539
• account-management@bundesbank.de