Demand for programmable payments is rising in the German economy. The working group on “Programmable money”, initiated by the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Deutsche Bundesbank, arrived at this verdict. The group, comprising experts from 19 enterprises in the real economy and financial sector, analysed possible payment solutions in new, innovative business cases.

The Bundesbank’s National Analysis Centre in Mainz receives around 30,000 requests every year for the replacement of damaged cash. In order to facilitate reconstruction in cases involving a large number of banknote fragments, the Bundesbank joined forces with the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology (Fraunhofer IPK) to develop a digital system for reconstructing badly damaged euro banknotes based on “ePuzzler” technology.

In 2019, shortly before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the profitability of German non-financial enterprises was in good shape. Overall, German enterprises earned an average of 4.3 cent on each euro of sales in 2019, the Bundesbank writes in its latest Monthly Report. However, the coronavirus pandemic is likely to weigh heavily on corporate profitability this year and insolvencies are likely to increase.