The Bundesbank is about to become a hub for joint digital financial innovations developed by central banks from all over the world. Together, the French central bank and the Bundesbank will set up an innovation centre in Frankfurt am Main and Paris. Both banks are thus part of the Bank for International Settlements’ global “BIS Innovation Hub” network.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) sees central banks as playing a key role in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. “Central banks reacted swiftly and forcefully, preventing firms and households from being further burdened by a financial collapse by stabilising the financial system and supporting credit flows,” said Agustín Carstens, General Manager of the BIS, at the report’s presentation. 

Today, the German Financial Stability Committee (G-FSC) presented its seventh report to the German Bundestag. The report shows that the committee focused primarily on the risk of underestimating credit risk, the low interest rate environment and real estate markets.

Banks have become more resilient since the global financial crisis and have stronger loss-absorbing capacity. Also, there are better options for dealing with banks in distress. These are the findings made by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) in a consultation report on the evaluation of too-big-to-fail (TBTF) reforms. The report also identifies gaps that still need to be addressed.

Banking supervisors are reviewing their supervisory practices and measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Both the EBA stress test and the LSI stress test have been postponed, for example. More information can be found on the websites of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), the ECB, the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS).

According to survey data, people living in rural areas continue to have good access to cash, as shown by a study in the current issue of the Bundesbank’s Monthly Report. Respondents still prefer to withdraw their cash from ATMs.

According to Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, the German economy has probably moved past the trough of the coronavirus crisis. “The economy is growing again,” Mr Weidmann said at a speech in Frankfurt am Main.

A new weekly activity index (WAI) published by the Bundesbank is designed to measure real economic activity in Germany in a timely manner. Measured by the WAI, economic activity between 16 March and 14 June 2020 was 7.4% below the activity recorded between 16 December 2019 and 15 March 2020.

Following the severe recession in the first half of this year, the German economy is likely to recover again. According to current Bundesbank projections, economic output will contract by 7% in 2020, yet in the next two years, real gross domestic product (GDP) could then increase by 3 to 4% per year.

A new weekly activity index (WAI) for the German economy has been developed at the Bundesbank to assess the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the economy from a near-time perspective. The Bundesbank is using this new indicator as an input in its short-term economic analysis.