Once a year, the Bundesbank invites guests from the spheres of politics, academia and society to the Capital City Reception in Berlin to exchange views on the economic situation and current topics. This year's event saw Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel welcome IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and author Constanze Stelzenmüller as special guests.

The world is becoming increasingly digital – this presents a whole host of challenges for payments in Europe, but also opens up opportunities as a result of innovations. The Bundesbank’s Payments Symposium 2024 saw around 250 experts from the business community, academia and state institutions come together to discuss this topic, including Bundesbank Executive Board member Burkhard Balz and Piero Cipollone, member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank.

The banking stress test just conducted jointly by BaFin and the Bundesbank has shown that the profitability of small and medium-sized banks and savings banks in Germany improved significantly in 2023. Institutions have emerged from the interest rate reversal with stronger profitability and a higher capital base, and are also prepared for a severe crisis scenario. At a joint press conference in Frankfurt, Raimund Röseler, Chief Executive Director of Banking Supervision at BaFin, and Michael Theurer, the Bundesbank Executive Board member responsible for banking supervision, presented the results of the “LSI stress test”.

This year, the Bundesbank’s autumn conference in Frankfurt am Main focused on the challenges facing financial markets, financial intermediaries and central banks. The conference, which was organised in cooperation with the Humboldt University of Berlin, hosted international guests and speakers from the Federal Reserve Bank, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, King’s College London, Princeton and Bocconi University, among many more.