The Bundesbank has set itself a medium-term strategic orientation with Strategy 2020, which the Bank’s Executive Board adopted in July 2016. "This strategy is designed to gear the Bundesbank’s activities towards shared strategic objectives over the medium term and throughout the Bank, and to manage the use of its resources in a goal-oriented fashion," stated Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann. At other central banks and public institutions, too, the importance of strategies as a tool for target-based management has grown significantly in recent years.

Management staff from all quarters of the Bank were involved in developing the strategy, which ensured that the process was conducted transparently and openly and resulted in a strategy that enjoys broad support within the Bank. This is already the fourth medium-term strategy: the first was adopted by the German central bank in 2002, and this was followed by two other medium-term strategies in 2007 and 2012.

Strategy 2020 differs from the earlier strategic cycles in that it has two key new features. First, Strategy 2020 is, for the first time, preceded by a dedicated Bundesbank mission statement. Together with the Eurosystem’s mission statement, it forms the longer-term roadmap for the Bundesbank and articulates the future vision the Bundesbank aspires to over and beyond the strategic cycle, its defining features and how it interprets its role and mandate. It also serves to guide employees in their day-to-day conduct in the Bank.

The second feature incorporated for the first time is the focus on four universal strategic objectives for the Bank as a whole: the Bundesbank wants to safeguard a culture of stability, strengthen its role in the European setting, enhance the Bank’s perceived profile, and make it fit for the future and efficient. "The overall Bank objectives are intended to make the strategy even more clear and focused," said Bundesbank President Dr Weidmann. The objectives for the Bank as a whole are fleshed out by 27 strategic objectives.

Implementation of the strategy is being closely overseen by the Bundesbank’s Directorate General Controlling, which reports to the Executive Board annually as part of a strategy review.