Bundesbank Executive Board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele has outlined the advantages and drawbacks of blockchain technology in a speech, stating that the basic version of this technology must be adapted to financial transaction conditions if it is to be used in the financial sector.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has urged a timely exit from the ultra-accommodative monetary policy. In a speech delivered in Berlin, he stressed that sovereign asset purchases should not shift the red line representing the border to monetary financing of governments.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann believes that particular caution should be exercised when applying unconventional monetary policy measures. Speaking at the European Banking Congress in Frankfurt am Main, he noted that they "come with a different risk-reward calculus than standard instruments as they have more harmful side effects."

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has thanked Joachim Nagel for his work in the Bundesbank's Executive Board. Nagel left the Executive Board at the end of April 2016 and, with effect from 1 November 2016, has taken on the post of General Manager of KfW.

Some 100 representatives from academia, the business community and the community of banking and financial supervisors attended the Annual Global Conference of the European Banking Institute (EBI), which was held at the Bundesbank’s headquarters building. The significance of the low-interest-rate environment for banks and the new competition from fintechs were among the topics covered at the conference.

Joachim Wuermeling took office as a member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank on 1 November 2016. The 56-year-old Wuermeling succeeds Joachim Nagel, who left the Executive Board on 30 April 2016 before the end of his full term.

According to Yves Mersch, member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, the Eurosystem's monetary policy is working. However, in remarks made before an audience of Bundesbank students, he warned that, at the same time, it was important to move away from the special situation created by the low interest rate environment as quickly as possible.

From 1 December 2016, a new face will represent the Bundesbank in São Paulo. Eike Berner will take over from Marc Rennert, whom Executive Board Member Andreas Dombret thanked for the past four years' work at a celebration to mark the occasion.

Compared with central and state government debt, local government debt in Germany is moderate. However, there are major disparities in this regard, with many local authorities finding themselves in dire financial straits. In the latest issue of its Monthly Report, the Bundesbank explains local government finances and warns that lax oversight of local government by state government and the absence of risk premiums when obtaining financing could cause trouble ahead.

Nowadays, a key part of trading on international stock markets is being performed by computer algorithms designed to minimise the time lag between orders and their execution. In the current issue of its Monthly Report, the Bundesbank studies what effects these increasingly rapid trading activities are having on the German capital market.