How many cocoa beans would a loaf of bread cost? What about a pair of shoes? In the past, objects really were used as a means of payment in some parts of the world. For example, the Mayans, one of the oldest cultures in Central America, traded cocoa beans for food and clothing. In the third part of our series from the Money Museum, presenter Silviana Ursu takes a look at what constitutes money and the ways we pay today. 

The NGFS released a report entitled “Adapting central bank operations to a hotter world: Reviewing some options” which assesses nine options available to central banks to factor climate-related risks into their operational framework. Sabine Mauderer, Chair of the NGFS’ “Scaling-up green finance” workstream and executive board member of the Deutsche Bundesbank: “Central banks ought to be aware of climate risks for the integrity of their balance sheets. Even more so, they should get ready to respond to such risks swiftly and with determination. Our report is a great blueprint to support central banks in making strategic choices on how to reflect climate risk in their monetary policy operations.” 

Deutsche Bundesbank together with Deutsche Börse Group and Germany’s Finance Agency have developed and successfully tested a settlement interface for electronic securities. Securities settlement using distributed ledger technology (DLT) is performed with the aid of a trigger solution in TARGET2.

Part of our money museum looks like a supermarket – though there aren’t actually any real groceries there, of course. In the second part of our video series, presenter Silviana Ursu shows what our money is worth and what price stability means.

The Ides of March aureus is one of the rarest and therefore most valuable Roman coins in the world.  One of these is housed in the British Museum and another in the Bundesbank's Money Museum. In the first part of our short video series showing highlights from the Money Museum, presenter Silviana Ursu explains the story behind this special coin.

The animated film clearly shows why prices should still whole, neither rise sharply fall and what role the central bank plays in securing stable prices.

Whilst Europe is home to successful payment systems – Germany’s girocard scheme, for instance – these are often only national in scope. How can payment operations be harmonised across Europe and made more convenient for consumers?

The emergency monetary policy measures taken in response to the coronavirus pandemic have impacted noticeably on the Deutsche Bundesbank’s balance sheet.

The Bundesbank is not distributing a profit for 2020 – for the first time since 1979. The main reason was the greater level of risk provisioning, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann explained at the press conference to present the annual accounts in Frankfurt am Main. The emergency monetary policy measures taken in response to the coronavirus pandemic are consequently having a noticeable impact on the Bundesbank’s balance sheet. In the previous year, the Bundesbank had distributed a profit of €5.9 billion.

In 2020, the Bundesbank registered approximately 58,800 counterfeit euro banknotes with a nominal value of €2.9 million in German payments. The number of counterfeits thus rose by 6.5% on the year, while the nominal value of the banknotes seized fell by 14.3%.