The National Cash Forum has been established on the initiative of the Bundesbank, the being, as Bundesbank Executive Board member Burkhard Balz put it, to preserve cash as an efficient and widely used means of payment in a changing payment landscape. The forum will facilitate close dialogue between the associations of the banking industry, retail trade, consumer protection, the CIT industry, vending machine operators and the Bundesbank. The industry is set to meet here at least once a year. 

Apart from its own bilateral and multilateral projects, the Bundesbank is engaged in projects financed by third parties. These alone account for one-third of the Centre for Technical Central Bank Cooperation’s activities.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €31.4 billion in December 2023, up €0.9 billion on the previous month’s level. While the surplus in the goods account decreased, the surplus in in-visible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income, ex-perienced a stronger increase.