The information contained in the study is of interest to all market participants affected by the payment behaviour of private individuals, most notably retailers, credit institutions, card issuers and, last but not least, the Deutsche Bundesbank itself. Players wishing to foster more innovation in the field of payments need to offer a genuine advantage over established schemes and procedures and, in particular, to heed users’ perceived security needs.

The September 2013 Monthly Report explains the performance of German credit institutions in 2012 and the development of government interest expenditure in Germany. In addition, a workshop report to predictive models in the short-term economic analysis is included.