Terms of Use for the website of the Deutsche Bundesbank

DE

Thank you for your interest in the Bundesbank's website. Across these pages, the German central bank provides information about current developments in areas such as monetary policy, banking supervision, financial stability, payment systems and cash management. The website also provides access to information on careers at the Bundesbank, extensive statistics, and current publications.

In the rotating texts at the very top of the homepage, and in the panel below it, you will find articles about current developments relating to the Bundesbank. All of these texts can also be found in the "Topics" section. In the "Bundesbank" section, you will find information on how the Bank is organised, as well as on careers, research and the Money Museum. The "Tasks" section outlines the Bundesbank’s key areas of activity. Under "Statistics" there is an extensive range of texts and figures concerning, for example, banks, public finances, and money and capital markets. The "Service" section collates a variety of services including the school service and our media library, which contains photo and video collections. "Press" is targeted at journalists, who will find a huge range of material as well as contact details in this section. On the far right, under "Publications", you will find a variety of Bundesbank publications; you can generally order a print copy free of charge or download the publications as PDFs. Do you have a question you’d like to ask us? All the details you’ll need can be found under "Contact" at the top left of the page.

Terms of use for the Deutsche Bundesbank’s password-protected dedicated website for journalists, which is managed by the Communications Department

General information

The following terms stipulate how registered users are to handle the infrastructure of the Deutsche Bundesbank (hereinafter Bank) relating to its password-protected dedicated website for journalists, which is managed by the Bank’s Communications Department. The dedicated website for journalists allows users advance internet access to selected Bank documents (speeches by members of the Executive Board, publications (Monthly Report, Annual Report, Financial Stability Review), the semi-annual economic forecasts, and press releases). These documents are subject to an embargo on the dedicated website, ie the information the documents contain must not be disclosed and the documents must not be forwarded to third parties or otherwise disseminated until the embargo deadline has passed, from which time the documents can be accessed by the general public via the Bank’s website. 

Without prejudice to the special terms outlined below, which shall take precedence in case of doubt, the provisions stated on the Imprint page, which include a disclaimer/exclusion of liability, shall additionally apply to the use of the Bank’s dedicated website for journalists. 

Persons authorised to access the dedicated website 

All journalists are authorised to access the dedicated website. The Communications Department grants authorisation to journalists wishing to access this service; upon request, journalists must produce a press pass as proof of their occupation. The applicant is given an access ID, which is valid exclusively for him or her as an individual. Journalists must name any editorial office, media company or publishing house with which they are affiliated; the Bank shall assume that journalists affiliated with an editorial office, media company or publishing house will act on behalf of said editorial office, media company or publishing house and may represent it with binding effect unless they explicitly state that they are not authorised to do so. Freelance journalists who are not employed by a media company or publishing house or who have a contract of agency with such entities must state that they are freelance journalists. 

General security measures 

The following security measures are taken for communication between the Bank and users.

  • Use of the mechanisms applied via SSL (Secure Socket Layer) and https.

  • Authentication: password allocated by the Bank.

The Bank shall merely verify that the above-mentioned necessary security features are in place. 

Users shall bear responsibility for securing their own hardware and software (eg anti-virus and anti-spyware protection). Each user shall be held bindingly accountable for all actions (eg logging-on, changing a password, changing personal user data online) which entail the use of the above-mentioned security features. 

Registration 

Users shall generally use the form on the Bank’s website to register for the dedicated website. Users provide their consent to the Terms of use on this form. Upon request, they must produce their press pass in a suitable form.  

Once users have submitted the form, they will receive an automated e-mail reply requesting confirmation of their e-mail address. The Bank’s Communications Department does not verify whether users are to be authorised to access the service until this confirmation has been sent. 

Users may request access to the dedicated website using other suitable means of communication.  

If their request is approved, users receive an automatically generated password; their user ID is their stated e-mail address.

The e-mail address forms part of the registration data and must be unique within the Bank's system.  

Handling authentication data 

Users shall take appropriate organisational and/or technical measures to ensure that the access data are not misused and, in particular, that no unauthorised persons gain knowledge of them.  

Should users lose their password or suspect that unauthorised persons have gained knowledge of said password or that the access data have been misused, they must

  • change their password immediately or

  • have their user ID blocked. 

Handling the documents provided, sanctions for breaching an embargo

The documents provided on the dedicated website for journalists are intended for publication. Users and the entire editorial office on whose behalf they are acting must comply with the embargos specified on the dedicated website. The publishers (Deutsche Bundesbank/ECB) must be stated as the source of these documents. 

All registered users are obliged to comply with the embargos. They shall ensure that they personally and the editorial office on whose behalf they are acting comply with the embargos and investigate the causes of any breach. The Bank must be informed as soon as possible of any breaches of an embargo. The Bank may inform other editorial offices of the breach in anonymised form, ie without disclosing the identity of the user or the editorial team responsible. 

Any breach of an embargo is punishable with the following sanctions, which apply to the access account of the user responsible for the breach and all access accounts of the editorial office with which he or she is affiliated and of its members. Where media companies and publishing houses operate in several media formats and provide various language services, sanctions shall apply to all activities. 

  • For the first breach of an embargo: one-month ban from accessing the dedicated website for journalists.
  • For each repeat offence by the same journalist or a journalist from the same editorial office, the same media company or the same publishing house within a period of 12 months from the date when the first ban was imposed: a three-month access ban.
  • For flagrant infringements, particularly those performed with malicious intent or involving continuous infringements by the same journalist or a journalist from the same editorial office, the same media company or the same publishing house within a period of 12 months from the date when the first ban was imposed: a permanent access ban.

The duration of temporary bans is calculated in full months, beginning on the working day following the day on which the Bank identified the breach.  

Availability 

The dedicated website for journalists is provided on a purely voluntary basis via the Bundesbank's website to allow journalists and their editorial offices, media companies and publishing houses advance access to selected Bank documents provided that they undertake to comply with the embargos.

There is no entitlement to access the dedicated website or specific documents provided on said dedicated website before their general publication.  

Blocking 

The Bank can block user IDs at any time. It will block a user ID with immediate effect if there is a material reason to do so, eg a reasonable suspicion of misuse, or use of a user ID to spy on systems or to prepare or carry out attacks on the communications infrastructure. 

Data protection 

The personal data recorded during user registration are saved in the Communication Department’s list of addresses and in an access file for user identification purposes. These data will be forwarded to third parties only where this is required by law. Please refer to our privacy policy provisions for more information on data protection.  

Amendments or revisions to the Terms of use 

The Bank may, at any time, partly amend or fully revise the Terms of use for this service, which is provided on a voluntary basis. In such instances, the Bank shall inform subscribers of the amendments or revisions to the Terms of use via the e-mail address provided by them during registration and additionally display the amended or revised Terms of use on the dedicated website. It may inform users of the changes through other suitable means of communication. Six weeks after the information has been sent, users shall be deemed to have given their consent to the amended or revised Terms of use unless they explicitly state otherwise. The Bank shall make specific reference to this assumption of consent when notifying users of the amendments or revisions. Users who refuse their consent shall have their access to the dedicated website for journalists blocked.