Persistently low interest rates pose risks to financial stability, warn Bundesbank Deputy President Claudia Buch and Executive Board member Andreas Dombret at the press conference to unveil the Bundesbank's 2015 Financial Stability Review. This, they caution, applies particularly to banks and insurers.

Germany’s financial links with the rest of the world continued to increase in 2012.

The extensive package of measures taken to combat the sovereign debt crisis have led to risk being redistributed among the member states of the euro area, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann told a conference in Venice. This, he said, undermines the necessary foundation for a stable and prosperous monetary union.

In a speech in Rome Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann pointed out that, in order to permanently stabilise the euro area, action and liability again must be aligned. This principle should apply not only to banks, but also for policy decisions in the euro area.

Since 2008, the Deutsche Bundesbank has been taking a comprehensive look at how the population pays, what attitudes they have towards cash and electronic means of payment, and what developments can be expected in payment transactions.