Bundesbank Executive Board member Joachim Wuermeling sees digital financial and money functions pursued by initiatives ranging from clouds to Libra as a major challenge facing European banking supervisors. At an event in Frankfurt, Wuermeling stated that “if risk-relevant links in the financial value chain evade supervision, for credit institutions, it’s a matter of a level playing field, but for us as supervisors it’s a question of financial stability.”

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel has warned of persistently high inflation. “Even before the war against Ukraine, the inflation rate was very high. [...] Given the surge in energy prices on account of the war, consumer price inflation is likely to pick up again substantially, particularly in the near term,” Mr Nagel said in a speech delivered at a change of office ceremony in Hanover. As members of the ECB Governing Council, he remarked, we must now ensure that the strong inflation does not become entrenched and does not lead to excessively high inflation in the medium term.