What role do central banks play in combatting climate change? This question was at the focus of a two-day academic conference hosted by the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System and the Council on Economic Policies at the Bundesbank in Berlin.

The Bundesbank’s October 2018 Monthly Report comments on trends in state government finances, the implementation of the debt brake and future budgetary surveillance. It also analyses the macroeconomic impact of uncertainty as well as the activities of multinationals against the backdrop of national economic statistics. Furthermore, the report contains an article on the growing importance of exchange-traded funds on the financial markets.

From a legal perspective, the DCAs in TARGET2-Securities belong to TARGET2. The TARGET2 Guideline thus also regulates the “Harmonised conditions for the opening and operation of a dedicated cash account in TARGET2”. Here, too, the ECB wanted to standardise the legal requirements as far as possible. The “Terms and conditions for a DCA” are a literal copy of the harmonised conditions. Beside the necessary editorial changes, solely a minimal amount of provisions which were not relevant to TARGET2-Bundesbank were deleted.

From a legal perspective, TARGET2 consists of a number of TARGET2 component systems. Based on the Eurosystem’s approach, and in an attempt to standardise the legal requirements for participation as far as possible, the “Terms and conditions for a PM account” are, however, a literal copy of the “Harmonised conditions for the opening and operation of a PM account in TARGET2”, which were adopted within the framework of the TARGET2 Guideline. The Bundesbank simply made the necessary editorial changes (such as inserting the terms “Bundesbank” and “TARGET2-Bundesbank”, for example) and deleted a minimal amount of provisions which were not relevant to TARGET2-Bundesbank.