Effective 1 February 2016, credit transfers will no longer be processed unless users specify an international bank account number, also known as an IBAN. From this day forward, bank sort codes and account numbers will be a thing of the past.

The Bundesbank's Central Office in Frankfurt am Main is more than 40 years old. For Executive Board member Johannes Beermann, "the Bundesbank's main building radiates a strong sense of objectivity and functionality; for wide sections of the general public it symbolises a culture of stability in monetary policy".

Investment is still lagging far behind pre-crisis levels across most of the euro area, the Bundesbank writes in its latest Monthly Report. Some of the factors that briefly held back investment, such as tough financing conditions, may have become less significant, but the bleaker growth prospects are continuing to weigh on the investment climate.

The drop in oil prices was instrumental in driving down German consumer prices, which declined perceptibly in December from their November levels. The Deutsche Bundesbank's latest Monthly Report suggests that if crude oil prices remain at their current low level, inflation will probably stay subdued in the months to come as well.

Jens Weidmann paid tribute to the achievements of Hans-Werner Sinn, the long-serving President of the ifo Institute. Mr Weidmann told the audience at a symposium held to mark Professor Sinn's retirement from office as President of the ifo Institute that he had played a major part in shaping the economic and political debate of the past few decades.

The German economy grew strongly in the past year. Driven by strong consumption growth, real gross domestic product (GDP), according to initial calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, was up by 1.7% from 2014.

According to the December edition of the Monthly Report, the Bundesbank believes that key preconditions for a European deposit insurance scheme are not yet met. For instance, it considers there to be a risk that a European deposit insurance scheme could be forced, indirectly, to shoulder other countries’ risks.

G20 finance ministers and central bank deputies met in Sanya, China, to discuss issues such as the 2016 agenda for the Chinese G20 Presidency, which began in early December. New initiatives in financial regulation were also a topic of discussion. Bundesbank Executive Board member Andreas Dombret attended as the Bundesbank’s deputy.

Bundesbank Executive Board member Joachim Nagel has spoken out in favour of disclosing the contents of the Agreement on Net Financial Assets (Anfa). The agreement sets balance-sheet ceilings for financial non-monetary policy operations on the part of Eurosystem national central banks. In a two-part interview with the German business daily Börsen Zeitung, Dr Nagel commented that monetary financing of the public sector was to be prevented at all costs.

The Bundesbank has published its inaugural environmental report, which outlines its environmental guideline and discloses its greenhouse gas emissions. "The Bundesbank aims to reduce its emissions by 25% by 2025," according to Bundesbank Executive Board member Johannes Beermann.