Bundesbankvorstand Burkhard Balz hat ein gemeinsames digitales Zahlungssystem für Europa gefordert. Die großen Anbieter müssten sich an einen Tisch setzen und ein gemeinsames System entwickeln, sagte er in einem Interview. „Sonst werden sie in einem globalisierten Zahlungsverkehr bald keine Rolle mehr spielen.“ 

As the economy clouds over, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has cautioned against panic and action for action’s sake. “It’s become something of a habit for people to turn straight to monetary policymakers and demand a large-scale response,” he said in an interview with the Sunday newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. “I think that’s wrong,” he argued.

Bundesbank Executive Board member Joachim Wuermeling has called for global rules governing digital crypto tokens in an interview with the Sunday newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. This was prompted by plans announced by Facebook to launch its own digital currency, which will be backed by assets such as short-term Bunds and US Treasuries.

Bundesbank Executive Board member Sabine Mauderer has dampened expectations about a possible tiering system for deposit rates, which would exclude some reserves held at the central bank from negative rates as a way of easing the burden on banks. “I wouldn’t make too much of that kind of relief,” she told the “Handelsblatt” newspaper, “nor has it been established whether there is even a monetary policy case for introducing a tiering system.”

Bundesbank Executive Board member Burkhard Balz says that Europe should be aiming to create payments solutions and platforms of its own. “Here in Europe, we need to prevent a situation from arising in which American and Chinese payment systems are all we have left to choose between,” he said in an interview with Germany’s “Handelsblatt” newspaper. 

The Bundesbank celebrates its 55th birthday on 1 August and continues to stand for an exceptionally strong orientation to stability. We discussed the highs and lows of this era with Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann and former Bundesbank President Helmut Schlesinger, who has been following the Bank’s fortunes since its beginning. The interview was conducted on 29 June 2012, shortly after the Brussels EU summit had cleared the way for a European banking union.