Loans for house purchase are experiencing a marked upswing in Germany. Bundesbank analyses and a Eurosystem survey of banks both show that this credit growth is being driven by greater demand. Fears that the increase could have been precipitated by looser credit standards therefore have not solidified.

According to the Bundesbank's latest Monthly Report, growth in the German economy in the second half of 2015 was characterised by buoyant domestic demand. No demand impulses were emanating from outside the euro area, however.

Last year, the Deutsche Bundesbank successfully completed the transfer of its gold stocks from New York. "The realisation of the gold storage plan is therefore well ahead of the original schedule," said Carl-Ludwig Thiele, Member of the Bundesbank’s Executive Board, at a press conference in Frankfurt am Main.

The euro area's Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) has been up and running for just over a year now. At a conference in Frankfurt am Main, supervisors, bankers and academics discussed the challenges that now lie ahead in the supervisory space.

9 February marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of Wilhelm Vocke, who was President of the Board of Managers of the Bank deutscher Länder, the Bundesbank's predecessor, between 1948 and 1957. Vocke is remembered In Germany and abroad as a man who stood up for what he believed in and as the "guardian of the currency".

Can monetary policy measures induce financial institutions to take higher risks? This is the question addressed by the two authors of a discussion paper that the Bundesbank's Research Centre has just published. In particular, they explore how monetary policy can influence the asset (ie investment) risk entered into by banks.

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.