The German economy got off to a lively start to 2016, according to the Bundesbank's March Monthly Report. The Bank's economists believe that growth in the first quarter of 2016 should be at least as strong as in the second half of 2015.

The Deutsche Bundesbank and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) have pledged to intensify their dialogue in an agreement signed on the fringes of the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Shanghai at the end of February.

An improved net result of financial operations, write-downs and risk provisioning caused a slight increase in the Bundesbank's profit in 2015. At the same time, the Bundesbank's net interest income was lower than at any time since monetary union was launched.

Loans for house purchase are experiencing a marked upswing in Germany. Bundesbank analyses and a Eurosystem survey of banks both show that this credit growth is being driven by greater demand. Fears that the increase could have been precipitated by looser credit standards therefore have not solidified.

According to the Bundesbank's latest Monthly Report, growth in the German economy in the second half of 2015 was characterised by buoyant domestic demand. No demand impulses were emanating from outside the euro area, however.

Last year, the Deutsche Bundesbank successfully completed the transfer of its gold stocks from New York. "The realisation of the gold storage plan is therefore well ahead of the original schedule," said Carl-Ludwig Thiele, Member of the Bundesbank’s Executive Board, at a press conference in Frankfurt am Main.

The euro area's Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) has been up and running for just over a year now. At a conference in Frankfurt am Main, supervisors, bankers and academics discussed the challenges that now lie ahead in the supervisory space.

9 February marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of Wilhelm Vocke, who was President of the Board of Managers of the Bank deutscher Länder, the Bundesbank's predecessor, between 1948 and 1957. Vocke is remembered In Germany and abroad as a man who stood up for what he believed in and as the "guardian of the currency".

Can monetary policy measures induce financial institutions to take higher risks? This is the question addressed by the two authors of a discussion paper that the Bundesbank's Research Centre has just published. In particular, they explore how monetary policy can influence the asset (ie investment) risk entered into by banks.

Effective 1 February 2016, credit transfers will no longer be processed unless users specify an international bank account number, also known as an IBAN. From this day forward, bank sort codes and account numbers will be a thing of the past.