Der Rat der Europäischen Zentralbank (EZB) hat beschlossen, den Zeitrahmen für die Überprüfung der geldpolitischen Strategie auszuweiten. Der Termin für den Abschluss der Strategieüberprüfung wird daher von Ende 2020 auf Mitte 2021 verschoben.

The number of credit institutions and branches fell again in 2019 to 1,717 institutions. “This shows that banks are actively responding to tough competition and changes in customer behaviour,” said Bundesbank Executive Board member Joachim Wuermeling.

The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has issued a general administrative act regarding the domestic countercyclical buffer rate. The rate was lowered from 0.25% to 0% with effect from 1 April 2020. 

Bundesbank economists have studied the factors that have influenced Germany’s TARGET balances over the past 20 years. The results show that the growth of the balances can be divided into four periods. The decline in German TARGET claims in 2018 and 2019 was due in large part to lower and, for a time, discontinued net asset purchases of the Eurosystem, write the Bundesbank’s experts.

Germany is facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the rapid spread of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Bundesbank’s latest Monthly Report. The experts regard a slide into a marked recession as being unavoidable. An economic recovery would set in only when the pandemic risk had been effectively brought under control.

Germany’s current account surplus dropped by €2 billion to €245½ billion in 2019. As a percentage of German gross domestic product (GDP), the balance sank to 7¼ percent.

Given the escalating diffusion of the coronavirus, the European Central Bank (ECB) has launched a new, temporary asset purchase programme. Under this programme, the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP), the ECB will purchase a total of €750 billion worth of assets by the end of 2020.

iven the anticipated need for credit in the real economy, BaFin intends to lower the countercyclical capital buffer from 0.25% to 0% as of 1 April 2020. This preventive measure will strengthen the German banking sector’s ability to lend.

Bundesbank Executive Board member Johannes Beermann has indicated that the risk of picking up coronavirus via cash is extremely minimal. In a press briefing at the Bundesbank, Mr Beermann noted that “the probability of becoming ill from handling cash is smaller than from many other objects used in everyday life”.

The European Central Bank and other major central banks have agreed on a coordinated action to safeguard the provision of credit institutions with cheap US dollar loans. This will serve as a liquidity backstop amidst the coronavirus pandemic and strengthen the supply of credit to households and enterprises. Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann welcomed the coordinated action.