For many years the Directorate General Banking and Financial Supervision and Directorate General Financial Stability have organised the Bundesbank's autumn conference in Frankfurt on a rotating basis.

This is where you will find answers to frequently asked questions about cash.

General Terms and Conditions

Bundesbankvorstandmitglied Sabine Mauderer spricht im Interview mit der Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung über den Finanzstandort Deutschland und den Strukturwandel.

The branches of the Bundesbank supply the economy with euro banknotes and coins, and offers private customers the opportunity to exchange D-Mark banknotes and coins free-of-charge and with no fixed deadline.

The German government has decided to mint a €2 commemorative coin entitled “175th Anniversary of the Frankfurt Constitution” to be issued on 21 March 2024.

We are striving to make regulation clearer, more understandable and more efficient – while continuing to safeguard the stability of the banking system, said Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel at the Bundesbank’s 13th regulatory conference in Frankfurt. At the conference, representatives from banks and securities and insurance companies joined policymakers to discuss current opportunities and challenges for the financial industry and supervisors in Germany.

Germany’s current account posted a surplus of €14.8 billion in July 2025, down €2.3 billion on the previous month’s level. The surplus in the goods account increased, but there was a stronger decline in the balance of invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income.

Am 9. September 2025 verabschiedete der Rat der Europäischen Zentralbank (EZB) eine Änderung der Verordnung (EU) 2015/534 über die Meldung aufsichtlicher Finanzinformationen (FINREP-Verordnung der EZB) und ihrer Anhänge.

Während die Grafiken auf den übrigen Webseiten dieser Studie die Ergebnisse regelmäßig erfragter Kernfragen abbilden, zeigen wir hier in loser Folge überwiegend Grafiken aus Sonderfragen zu Forschungsprojekten oder zur Politikberatung.

The Deutsche Bundesbank conducts regular surveys of households’ expectations for unemployment, economic growth, rent prices, real estate prices, and interest rates on savings and loans. These data are used to calculate index figures, from which corresponding trends can be easily derived.

In August 2025, individuals expected their monthly net household income to rise by of €85 on average over the next twelve months, slightly more than in the previous month (around €80). Expectations still vary significantly when broken down by factors such as household income, gender and, in particular, age group. The median remains constant at €125. This can be explained by the fact that a large share of individuals have considered income growth of between €0 and €250 to be most likely each month since this survey was launched.

In August, individuals in Germany adjusted their expectations for real estate prices in their region slightly upwards. With an average expected increase of 5.5 % over the next twelve months, expectations were 0.2 percentage point higher than the previous month’s figure of 5.3 %. When asked about their qualitative expectations in August, 63 % of individuals expected real estate prices to increase (July: 61 %) and an unchanged 7 % expected them to decrease during this period.

German enterprises constitute net debtors vis-à-vis non-residents: Standing at €1815 billion at the end of July 2025, their liabilities arising from financial operations and trade credits, exceeded their corresponding assets of €1547 billion by €268 billion. Compared with the previous month, this is a change of -€24 billion.

With the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), not only credit institutions, but also third-party payment service providers are able to offer their own account services.

The branches of the Bundesbank supply the economy with euro banknotes and coins, and offers private customers the opportunity to exchange D-Mark banknotes and coins free-of-charge and with no fixed deadline.

The credit valuation adjustment (CVA) framework is designed for OTC derivatives. These harbour not only market risk, but also credit risk. A deterioration in the credit quality of the derivative counterparty has a negative effect on the value of the derivative.

According to Article 4 (52) of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR), “operational risk” means the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems or from external events, and includes legal risk. 

Der EZB-Rat hat heute beschlossen, die drei Leitzinssätze der EZB unverändert zu belassen. Die Inflation liegt zurzeit in der Nähe unseres mittelfristigen Zielwerts von 2 %, und unsere Beurteilung der Inflationsaussichten ist weitgehend unverändert.

Der Bruttoabsatz am deutschen Rentenmarkt lag im Juli 2025 mit 131,7 Mrd € unter dem Wert des Vormonats (146,5 Mrd €). Nach Berücksichtigung der Tilgungen und der Eigenbestandsveränderungen der Emittenten stieg der Umlauf inländischer Rentenpapiere um 73,5 Mrd € (Juni: 53,6 Mrd €). Am deutschen Markt gehandelte ausländische Titel wurden hingegen im Umfang von 7,8 Mrd € getilgt. Der Umlauf von in- und ausländischen Schuldverschreibungen in Deutschland nahm so im Ergebnis um 65,7 Mrd € zu. 

Die deutsche Leistungsbilanz verzeichnete im Juli 2025 einen Überschuss von 14,8 Mrd €. Das Ergebnis lag um 2,3 Mrd € unter dem Niveau des Vormonats. Zwar erhöhte sich der Aktivsaldo im Warenhandel. Der Rückgang des Saldos im Bereich der „unsichtbaren“ Leistungstransaktionen, die neben Dienstleistungen auch Primär- und Sekundärein­kommen umfassen, war jedoch stärker.

Bundesbank’s external position stood at €833 billion at the end of August 2025, with claims from the TARGET2 payment system worth €1061 billion making up around 70 % of total assets. These are followed by international reserves, comprising gold and foreign exchange reserves, including the special drawing rights allocated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which account for a total of 21 % of assets. At 86 %, issuance of euro cash accounted for the bulk of liabilities. Deposits of non-euro area residents amount to 6 % of foreign liabilities.

When the third stage of European monetary union (EMU) was initiated on 1 January 1999, monetary and foreign exchange policy was transferred to the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), which consists of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the national central banks of the participating member states.

Zahlen und Übersichten

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel has opened the “Nature and structure” art exhibition at the Bundesbank’s Chemnitz branch. This exhibition is one way in which Germany’s central bank is marking the 2025 year of culture, during which Chemnitz is the European Capital of Culture. Boasting some 40 works of modern and contemporary art from the Bundesbank’s collection, this exhibition will be open to the general public until 7 November.

In accordance with the provisions of the Solvency Regulation, two different approaches are used to quantify credit and counterparty credit risk, the Credit Risk Standardised Approach and the Internal Ratings-Based Approach.

In operational terms, ongoing supervision involves evaluating documentation, reports, annual financial statements and audit as well as inspection reports, requesting of further information and, on the basis of the data collected, assessing the supervised institutions’ current and potential risks. The workload also includes conducting routine and, in consultation with BaFin, ad hoc supervisory meetings with respective institutions.

The ongoing monitoring of institutions also includes conducting on-site inspections. These give the Bundesbank deeper insights into institutions’ risk structures and the procedures they use to control risk. The Bundesbank’s supervisors investigate whether the internal risk measurement methods which institutions use to calculate their capital requirements can be approved.

The Deutsche Bundesbank was established on 1 August 1957. Here you can find an overview of the most important milestones of Germany’s central bank and monetary policy in the euro area.

The Bundesbank regularly investigates the payment behaviour of the population in Germany.