Following many online courses over the past two years, the “Introduction to the Basel Framework” course was held in Frankfurt as a face-to-face event in April. Marcus Haas, advisor on banking supervision, reports on how it went and the advantages and disadvantages of in-person courses.

2020 we offer again a broad variety of international central banking courses. Four Courses are brand new: Central bank communication via social media, Environmental and Energy Management, Cash management and Accounting for banking supervisors

Martin Dinkelborg is the programme manager responsible for the recently launched EU-funded project with the Western Balkans, a major project involving 30 institutions. In an interview, he illustrates just how complex the project is and talks of the many challenges that had to be overcome before the programme could be launched.

Is cash a thing of the past? Certainly not! It is an important means of payment and will remain so in the future. A central bank should be well prepared in this respect. In this age of automation and digitalisation, it is important to address the right questions and make adjustments for the future. The CIC has an interesting proposal relating to this issue.

Technology-based financial enterprises, also known as fintechs, have the potential to transform the financial system permanently. Experts from 15 countries discussed the challenges central banks and financial supervisory authorities face in their work with the advent of fintechs.

Britta Weinmann is the Bundesbank’s new representative at the German embassy in Moscow. Ms Weinmann, who worked in banking supervision at the Bank’s Regional Office in Hesse prior to this, took over her new role on 1 August from Sven Redel

EU Twinning light project “Strengthening the capacities of the system for fight against counterfeiting of EUR” in North Macedonia successfully completed.

What are households’ expectations? Since 2019, the Deutsche Bundesbank has been investigating this question by surveying households in Germany on a regular basis (Bundesbank Online Panel Households).

German payment service providers operated around 103 million current accounts last year. The payment statistics published by the Deutsche Bundesbank also show that the number of transactions involving these accounts in 2017 increased compared with 2016.

Experts from 17 countries and the Bundesbank discussed various issues regarding the exchange and shared use of sensitive and granular data and microdata. Real-world applicability was key. The seminar will be held again in 2019.