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 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.

The purpose of prudential liquidity regulations is to ensure that institutions are liquid at all times. Quantitative provisions for liquidity were introduced into European law for the first time by the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR, Regulation (EU) No 575/2013), in keeping with the Basel liquidity framework. The two Basel minimum standards (LCR, NSFR) and the additional monitoring metrics (AMM) were implemented by means of appropriate implementing technical standards and/or revised by Regulation (EU) 2019/876, which amended the CRR.

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 Centralised Securities Database is a security-by-security reference database that contains data on instruments, issuers and prices for debt securities, equity instruments and investment fund shares issued worldwide. A security-by-security database is a microdatabase that stores statistics at an individual security level.