Digitalisation and interconnectivity are shaping payments in Europe and worldwide. At the Bundesbank’s Payments Symposium, around 200 experts from business, academia and government institutions came together to discuss challenges and opportunities in the world of payments. Speakers included Bundesbank Executive Board members Lutz Lienenkämper and Burkhard Balz as well as ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone.

The international importance of a currency is reflected not only in its use as a reserve or anchor currency, but also in its role as an invoicing currency in trade across national borders. In the current issue of the Monthly Report, our experts examine the euro’s international role as an invoicing currency and its potential. 

In the first half of 2026, the Bundesbank withdrew around 30,000 counterfeit euro banknotes with a total nominal value of €1.75 million from circulation. This was a 4.3 % drop in the number of counterfeits compared with the second half of 2025. Levels of counterfeit money in Germany are low,” said Bundesbank Executive Board member Lutz Lienenkämper. Statistically speaking, there were seven counterfeit banknotes per 10,000 inhabitants.

Bureaucracy costs for firms in Germany have risen significantly in recent years. A new Bundesbank analysis quantifies the rise in bureaucracy costs. On average, they increased between 2022 and 2024 from around 5 % to around 7 % of annual turnover. Bureaucracy is placing a particularly heavy burden on smaller enterprises, according to the Bundesbank’s latest Monthly Report.