Refugees who fled the war in Ukraine can exchange hryvnia banknotes for euros in Germany. The Federal Ministry of Finance and the Deutsche Bundesbank agreed with the National Bank of Ukraine to extend the offer to 18 November 2022. The German Banking Industry Committee (Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft) and its participating banks want to continue supporting refugees. The scheme’s conditions remain unchanged.
 
Further information is available from the banks participating in the exchange scheme.

The Bundesbank will turn 65 on 1 August 2022. “The Bundesbank’s greatest achievement is certainly that it has created a culture of monetary stability and embedded it in the public con-sciousness”, said Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel in an interview he gave to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) to mark the anniversary. He noted that the currently very high inflation rates were weighing on many people and illustrated the importance of price stability, adding that “we can and must now do everything we can to prevent the current high level of inflation from becoming entrenched”. “People trust the Bundesbank, and they should continue to be able to do so.”

The Bundesbank has joined 25 national central banks and supervisory authorities as well as the ECB in signing the ESCB and SSM Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Charter (Diversity Charter). “I am committed to advancing diversity and an open-minded working culture at the Bundesbank. By signing the ESCB & SSM Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Charter, the Bundesbank is doubling down on its promise to embrace the power of being different,” said Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel on the occasion of the publication of the Charter by the ECB at the end of July.

The Bundesbank’s experts have created a new provisional dataset that can be used to examine wealth and debt developments at the level of individual households in Germany in a timely manner at quarterly intervals. According to this dataset, wealth inequality decreased slightly between 2009 and 2021, but remains high overall. The analysis presented in the current Monthly Report also shows that the rate of return on total assets varies considerably between individual households.

In its Monthly Report, the Bundesbank writes that the German economy is likely to have pretty much stagnated in the second quarter of 2022. Although the elimination of most coronavirus mitigation measures lent a strong boost to service providers, which had previously been constrained, the high inflation was a drag on households’ purchasing power and consumer sentiment deteriorated sharply. The report adds that supply bottlenecks and high uncertainty about future economic developments also weighed on industry.

In the first half of 2022, around 19,800 counterfeit euro banknotes with a nominal value of just under €1 million were withdrawn from circulation in Germany. The number of counterfeits fell by 3.9% compared with the second half of 2021.

Franz-Josef Benedikt steps down as President of the Bundesbank’s Regional Office in Bavaria and is succeeded by Reinhold Vollbracht, who previously headed a strategic office in the Directorate General Banking and Financial Supervision. Mr Benedikt retires at the end of July after serving in various positions during a 36-year career at the Bundesbank.

The exhibition “Change of location” at the Museum Giersch of Goethe University Frankfurt (MGGU) has been officially opened by Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel. “This is the first time that we are showcasing such a representative and extensive array of pieces from our collection outside the Bundesbank,” he said, speaking in Frankfurt. Nagel went on to explain that the title “Change of location” is to be interpreted not just in the spatial sense: “It also opens up fresh perspectives,” he pointed out. The exhibition will run until 8 January 2023.

The fourth event in the “Designing climate policies” series saw experts from academia, politics and public institutions discuss how the ecological transformation can be financed. Bundesbank Vice-President Claudia Buch kicked off the event, which the Bundesbank organised jointly with the Center for Liberal Modernity and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel has cautioned against using monetary policy instruments to limit risk premia. “Unusual monetary policy measures to combat fragmentation can be justified only in exceptional circumstances and under narrowly-defined conditions,” he said at the Frankfurt Euro Finance Summit.