The financial accounts summarise financial flows in the economy and thereby contribute to the picture provided by the national accounts, which focus on the real economy. Among other things, they show whether, on balance, financial resources were taken up or made available and in what form (eg loans or shares).

The main refinancing operations, with a weekly frequency and a maturity of one week, are the most important monetary policy instrument used by the Eurosystem for money market management.

The statistics on the money markets is on money market transactions, namely on secured, unsecured and certain derivatives money market transactions, concluded by monetary financial institutions (MFIs), with the exception of money market funds.

The Research Data and Service Centre (RDSC) provides two forms of access to selected microdata collected by the Bundesbank.

The outstanding amounts of assets and liabilities resulting from the Bundesbank's financial accounts can be presented in the form of financial balance sheets for the institutional sectors.

The German Panel on Household Finances (PHF) is a panel survey on household finance and wealth in Germany, covering the balance sheet, pension, income, work life and other demographic characteristics of private households living in Germany. The panel survey is conducted by the Research Centre of the Deutsche Bundesbank.

Since September 2024
Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank

The PHF is a representative survey of German households comprising both a panel and a refresher component. The panel structure mimics that of the [U.S.] Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). All households are re-contacted, and all individuals tracked. The intended survey frequency is three years.

During the PHF's first wave in 2010‑2011 a net sample of 3,565 randomly selected households was collected. In subsequent waves interviews were conducted with 4,461 households (2014), 4,942 households (2017) and 4,119 households (2021). Almost half of the households in wave two took part for the second time. Two thirds of households who participated in wave three had already taken part in a previous wave. In wave four, the share of interviews with panel households in the total number of interviews reached 83 %. The fifth wave started in spring 2023.

The survey is based on a stratified design. To better measure the distribution of wealth in Germany, wealthy households are oversampled on the basis of micro-geographical information.