Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid a visit to the Bundesbank’s Central Office in Frankfurt am Main. The background to the visit from Berlin was an informal exchange with the Bundesbank’s Executive Board and the heads of the Digital Euro and the Strategy and Innovation Directorates General, as well as IT staff. 

“Digital euro opens up opportunities for Europe”

Mr Steinmeier’s visit centred on the digital euro, the development and design of which is a top priority for the Bundesbank. Executive Board member Burkhard Balz explained that cash use in Germany is on the decline, while people’s everyday lives are becoming more and more digital. For the Bundesbank, a digital euro means being able to offer its core product, “cash”, as a digital product as well. What is more, he continued, the digital euro is the German central bank’s response to the mounting public demand for a secure and permanently available digital currency. Mr Balz also stressed the importance of an autonomous European market, in which this central bank digital currency would play a role. Director General Alexandra Hachmeister pointed to the many advantages and opportunities presented by the digital euro.

Visit to InnoWerk

The Federal President then visited the BIS Innovation Hub operated by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Bundesbank’s “Deep Innovation Space”. That’s the name given to an innovative media technology and workshop area that deploys cutting edge software to digitalise dedicated use cases and is able to leverage real-time data to run ad hoc scenario analyses. Executive Board member Sabine Mauderer emphasised that artificial intelligence plays a major role at the Bundesbank, noting that in procedures such as checking banks’ securities or staff recruitment, AI is an important tool in making processes more efficient and transparent. Dr Mauderer also believes that AI holds a wealth of potential when it comes to processing large datasets.

AI in practice

Bundesbank staff members demonstrated the central bank-specific use case of AI at the Bank to the Federal President by showcasing an internally developed text-based intelligent assistant. This can be used to summarise texts within seconds or rewrite them for a specific target audience, for example. “This technology will transform our work going forward,” stressed Bundesbank President Nagel. Dr Nagel pointed out that initial positive experience had already been seen not only in the Bundesbank’s collaboration with its Eurosystem partners, but also in the public administration, such as in a cooperative venture with the Federal Ministry of Finance. Federal President Steinmeier was impressed by the application of artificial intelligence in central banking, remarking upon the palpable sense that the Bundesbank was undergoing fundamental change. The Federal President then continued his discussions with the members of the Executive Board over lunch.