Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel and First Deputy Governor Sabine Mauderer, responsible for Controlling, Accounting and Organisation, will present the Annual Report 2024 on Tuesday, 25 February 2025, at 11:00. The press conference will be streamed live on the internet.

The Bundesbank registered roughly 72,400 counterfeit euro banknotes in German payments in 2024. Thus, the number of counterfeits was up by 28 % compared with the previous year. At the same time, however, the loss arising from counterfeiting went down. Overall, the incidence of counterfeit money remains moderate in scale: statistically speaking, in 2024 there were nine counterfeit banknotes per 10,000 inhabitants, said Burkhard Balz, member of the Bundesbank’s Executive Board.

I am confident that our financial system can mobilise the necessary financing, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said in a speech at the Adam Smith Business School in Glasgow, where he talked about the financing for the transition to a greenhouse gas-neutral economy. He also elaborated on what the potential financing mix to fund the transition might look like. Furthermore, Nagel emphasised the need for a strong banking system and improved access to capital market financing. 

The Governing Council of the ECB has shortlisted the motifs for the two possible themes for future euro banknotes: “European culture: shared cultural spaces” and “Rivers and birds: resilience in diversity”. The selected motifs include Ludwig van Beethoven, Marie Curie and Leonardo da Vinci. “Rivers and birds” included a kingfisher in a waterfall, a white stork flying over a river valley and a wallcreeper next to a mountain landscape. The ECB is expected to make the final decision on the designs of the new banknotes in 2026.