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 research programme offering a thematic overview of ongoing and planned research activities in the areas of monetary policy, financial stability and banking supervision.

At first the euro was mistrusted, with many calling it the “teuro” (“expensive euro”). Around 20 years ago, 70% of the participants in a survey by the Institut für Demoskopie responded that they had “little or no trust” in the euro, which had been introduced in cash form on 1 January 2002. Today, 82% of Germans support the euro. The Bundesbank played a key role in the introduction of euro cash in January 2002.

The Bundesbank offers its ERMS customers storage and administration of their foreign reserve assets in a securities account.

The German financial system has functioned well during the pandemic; the extensive government measures have shielded the financial sector from losses. This is the conclusion reached by the Bundesbank in its Financial Stability Review 2021.