axel a weber : independence, continuity and safeguarding monetary stability speech by professor axel a weber, president of the deutsche bundesbank, at his inauguration as bundesbank president, frankfurt am main, 12 may 2004. * * * mr eichel mr trichet ladies and gentlemen on 30 april the federal finance minister presented me with my certificate of appointment as the ninth president of the deutsche bundesbank. i would like to thank you, mr eichel, for the recognition and trust which the federal government has bestowed on me in making this appointment. i would like to thank you, mr trichet, for the kind reception at the european system of central banks and the governing council of the ecb. as an academic, i have observed the monetary policy of the eurosystem from a theoretical standpoint from the outset. as a result, the opportunity of being able to participate in the practical side of monetary policy in the governing council of the ecb has a particular appeal for me. i would like to thank you, mr palsbroker, and the 14, 500 bundesbank employees whom you represent for the warm welcome to the deutsche bundesbank. and i would like to thank my colleagues on the executive board for my successful initiation and the friendly working atmosphere. our working relationship got off to a constructive and very promising start last week. as an institution, the deutsche bundesbank, with whose future i am now entrusted, has gone through an extremely difficult phase during the past few weeks. it has stood in the limelight as never before, and it has been criticised to an extent and with an intensity that it had never previously known. after mr [ ernst ] welteke had decided to stand down from office for the time being, dr [ jurgen ] stark in his capacity as vice - president of the bundesbank took over as acting president. dr stark, i would like to extend a very special word of thanks to you for your stewardship of the bundesbank during these three difficult weeks. it is thanks to you personally that the loss of reputation sustained by the bundesbank was held in check. 1. independence the special circumstances in which the change of office took place again reminded the general public that the independence of central banks is enshrined in law and for good reasons. this reminder may not have come in the right manner, but it certainly came at the right time. from an anti - inflationary stance, guaranteeing the independence of

joachim nagel : digital euro - vision, advances and challenges introductory remarks by dr joachim nagel, president of the deutsche bundesbank, at the fireside chat with massachusetts institute of technology students, cambridge, massachusetts, 16 april 2024. * * * check against delivery 1 introduction ladies and gentlemen, i am very pleased to be here with you today. as a macroeconomist and a central banker, i am delighted to be visiting the world's most famous technical university. the place where paul samuelson, one of the fathers of modern macroeconomics, worked. where his assistant robert c. merton developed the foundations of modern option pricing theory. economists and central bankers currently have a particularly keen interest in the mit digital currency initiative ( dci ), which conducts intensive research on blockchain technology and digital currencies. one of the reasons for the bundesbank's interest is that dci research includes central bank digital currencies. these cbdcs are the topic of my talk and our chat. as you probably know, the eurosystem is currently considering the introduction of the digital euro as a european central bank digital currency. first, i would like to touch upon our vision for a digital euro and explain the goals behind it. second, i will briefly summarise our current work on this project. and finally, i will set out possible challenges that could emerge if the digital euro is put into circulation. but before i start, i am delighted to announce that the bundesbank und the mit dci have agreed to cooperate in the field of cbdc. the main focus will be research on pivotal design questions such as the implementation of data protection and privacy in a cbdc system – a topic that many citizens care a lot about, not the least in germany. 2 our vision for a digital euro let us now take a look into the future. why do we need a central bank digital currency? what is our rationale for a digital euro? in my view, it is quite simple. first, our world is becoming increasingly digital, hence central banks must follow suit. the ongoing digitalisation affects the way people pay for things, in particular. eight years ago, for example, one out of five over - the - counter sales transactions was a card payment. two years ago, this had increased to one out of three, as shown by a recent ecb study on the payment attitudes of consumers in the euro area. 1 as payments are becoming