Upon invitation by the Research Centre, Benjamin M. Friedman, Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University, held a lecture entitled “Central banks’ battle against inflation: Implications for monetary policy”. It was followed by a panel discussion featuring Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel, Fritzi Köhler-Geib (Chief Economist, KfW Group) and Jens Ulbrich (Director General Economics, Deutsche Bundesbank). 

After adjustment for special factors in 2021, the consolidation process in the German banking sector, which has been going on for many years now, continued in 2022. Over the course of the year, the overall number of credit institutions fell by 61 (160 in the previous year) to 1,458.