Money, whether in the form of banknotes, coins, or digital credits in our bank accounts, is at the heart of nearly everything we do in modern life. But we rarely give it any sustained thought. What, after all, is money, really? How does it work? Where does it come from? Who controls the banks? How does monetary policy work, and what roles do central banks play in its use?

The Bundesbank presents film awards at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

The September 2017 Monthly Report contains an article on monetary policy indicators at the zero lower bound on the basis of term structure models, and an analysis of the performance of German credit institutions in 2016. Explanations are also provided on the potential and risks of distributed ledger technologies in payments and securities settlement and on the changes and results in the process of extending the investment fund statistics.