Academic staff at the Bundesbank's Research Data and Service Centre (RDSC) develop research data sets from the Bundesbank's various data bases in order to make them available for research and analytical purposes.

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel officially inaugurated Ulf Slopek as President of the Regional Office in Hesse in a ceremony attended by over 150 invited guests – and said a formal farewell to Mr Slopek’s predecessor Thomas Ollinger, who now heads the Bundesbank’s Directorate General Procurement.

The tendency of monetary policy to influence investors’ risk appetite has a significant impact on the effectiveness of the Eurosystem’s monetary policy on the macroeconomy and financial markets, according to an article in the latest Monthly Report. In it, the authors examine the impact of monetary policy measures on the risk appetite of euro area investors. Their analysis is based on a new broad-based indicator of risk appetite in the euro area.

Paying with cash or a debit card is the cheapest payment method for consumers in Germany. Cash incurs the lowest costs per payment transaction, while debit cards are cheapest in relation to the amount of money spent. Paying with a credit card is in any case considerably more expensive. These are the conclusions drawn by a study entitled “Costs of cash and card payments from a consumer perspective”, which was carried out on behalf of the Deutsche Bundesbank.