What are households’ expectations? Since 2019, the Deutsche Bundesbank has been investigating this question by surveying households in Germany on a regular basis (Bundesbank Online Panel Households).

German payment service providers operated around 103 million current accounts last year. The payment statistics published by the Deutsche Bundesbank also show that the number of transactions involving these accounts in 2017 increased compared with 2016.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, payment services are regulated pursuant to the Payment Services Oversight Act (Zahlungsdiensteaufsichtsgesetz, ZAG).

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.

On 13 March 2024, the ECB Governing Council decided on changes to the operational framework for implementing monetary policy. These changes will affect how central bank liquidity will be provided as excess liquidity in the banking system, while remaining significant over the coming years, gradually declines.

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 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 Eurosystem’s monetary policy measures in the years following the European sovereign debt crisis were shaped, in particular, by a prolonged period in which inflation rates were well below the Eurosystem’s target. Against this backdrop, the ECB Governing Council decided, starting in 2014, to conduct various targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTROs) and launch temporary monetary policy purchase programmes in addition to the existing operational framework.

The Eurosystem’s monetary policy from 2020 was shaped by the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in inflation from 2021. This ultimately led to a series of Eurosystem policy rate hikes totalling 450 basis points (from July 2022 to September 2023).

To ensure the stable and reliable operation of its payment processing and account management applications, the Bundesbank carries out a wide range of test activities with its customers.