Deutsche Bundesbank

The Bundesbank was founded in 1957 and issued the Deutsche Mark until the euro took over. It was the first central bank with full independence, which is why that form of central bank is called the Bundesbank model. Since 1999 it has been part of the Eurosystem, sharing responsibility for the euro with the ECB and the other national central banks.

An Executive Board of six members runs it. Half are nominated by the Federal Government and half by the Bundesrat, and the Federal President appoints all of them, as the Bundesbank describes on its page about the central bank of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Bundesbank takes no instructions from the Federal Government, and its President sits on the ECB Governing Council.

The Bundesbank names five areas of work: monetary policy, the financial and monetary system, banking supervision, cash management and payment systems. Monetary policy is decided for the whole euro area in the ECB Governing Council, and the Bundesbank carries it out in Germany, for example through the credit operations with German banks. It also manages Germany's foreign reserves, acts as fiscal agent for the federal government and compiles financial statistics.

For payments, the Bundesbank is the German access point to the Eurosystem's TARGET Services, which the page on TARGET2 and TIPS explains. It is also one of the national central banks working on the digital euro, covered on digital euro in Frankfurt.

In Germany the Bundesbank and BaFin share banking supervision. The Bundesbank carries out the ongoing monitoring of credit institutions: it assesses their capital and liquidity and conducts on-site inspections. BaFin takes the supervisory decisions. For the significant banks, Bundesbank staff work in the Joint Supervisory Teams of ECB Banking Supervision, and the Bundesbank is represented on the ECB Supervisory Board.

In the Eurosystem's exploratory work on settling DLT transactions in central bank money, three national central banks offered solutions, and the Bundesbank built one of them, the trigger solution. It connects a market ledger to T2, so that the security moves on the ledger and the payment runs as a normal T2 payment. The page on wholesale CBDC compares the three designs and explains Pontes, the ECB's follow-up for linking DLT platforms to the TARGET Services.

The Frankfurt Quantum Finance Forum is organized by Frankfurt School of Finance & Management in collaboration with the Deutsche Bundesbank, IBM, Finance Loop and Finteda. It covers quantum computing in finance, from portfolio optimization to the risk quantum computers pose to today's cryptography.

At Capital & Code in Frankfurt, where Finance Loop is a media partner, the first panels belong to the Deutsche Bundesbank. The Frankfurt Forum on Digital Assets & Applications brings people from banks, exchanges and the Bundesbank together on DLT-based securities and money, and the TUM Blockchain Conference 2026 in Munich lists a Bundesbank speaker as well.

It carries out the Eurosystem's monetary policy in Germany, supervises banks together with BaFin, supplies cash, runs payment operations and works on the stability of the financial system. It also manages Germany's foreign reserves and acts as fiscal agent for the federal government.

No, it is a separate central bank. The Bundesbank, the ECB and the other national central banks of the euro area together form the Eurosystem. The Bundesbank President votes in the ECB Governing Council under the rotation of voting rights.

Yes, together with BaFin. The Bundesbank monitors banks, analyzes their reports and carries out on-site inspections, and BaFin takes the supervisory decisions. For significant banks, both work inside ECB Banking Supervision.

Its central office is in Frankfurt am Main. It also has regional offices and branches across Germany, for example in Hamburg, Munich and Berlin.