According to a statement made to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) news agency by the Executive Board member responsible for Cash, Johannes Beermann, over the course of 2021 the Bundesbank will begin issuing new €20 banknotes with a special coating that is designed to extend the lifespan of the banknotes.

In the first half of the year, the coronavirus pandemic led to the most severe economic crisis in decades. The German financial system has, however, proven to be stable during the pandemic, and so far fulfilled its key functions, said Claudia Buch, Vice-President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, at the presentation of the 2020 Financial Stability Review. Ms Buch added that, in the further course of the pandemic, corporate insolvencies are likely to increase, and this requires sufficient preparation.

Demand for programmable payments is rising in the German economy. The working group on “Programmable money”, initiated by the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Deutsche Bundesbank, arrived at this verdict. The group, comprising experts from 19 enterprises in the real economy and financial sector, analysed possible payment solutions in new, innovative business cases.

The Bundesbank’s National Analysis Centre in Mainz receives around 30,000 requests every year for the replacement of damaged cash. In order to facilitate reconstruction in cases involving a large number of banknote fragments, the Bundesbank joined forces with the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology (Fraunhofer IPK) to develop a digital system for reconstructing badly damaged euro banknotes based on “ePuzzler” technology.

In 2019, shortly before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the profitability of German non-financial enterprises was in good shape. Overall, German enterprises earned an average of 4.3 cent on each euro of sales in 2019, the Bundesbank writes in its latest Monthly Report. However, the coronavirus pandemic is likely to weigh heavily on corporate profitability this year and insolvencies are likely to increase.

Vorschlag des EZB-Rats für neuen stellvertretenden Vorsitzenden des Aufsichtsgremiums der EZB an Europäisches Parlament übermittelt. Endgültige Bestätigung erfolgt nach Zustimmung des Parlaments durch den Rat der Europäischen Union.
 

Die Leistungsbilanz wies im Oktober 2020 einen Überschuss von 27 Mrd € auf (nach 25 Mrd € im Vormonat).

Forex trading customers of the Bundesbank may purchase and sell euro in return for the following currencies on a spot basis.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann sees a need for monetary policy action stemming from the subdued medium-term inflation in the euro area. However, he also considers it crucial that the share of outstanding government bonds held by central banks does not become too large. “Otherwise, we would be running the risk of gaining a dominant market influence and smoothing out the differences in risk premia for government bonds,” Mr Weidmann said in a speech delivered virtually at the Humboldt University in Berlin.