€1 billion of our provisions for general risks. last year, policy rates were still at all - time lows until july. the financial burdens resulting from the increase in interest rates have therefore been limited thus far. the burdens on the bundesbank's profit and loss account are likely to increase considerably in the years to come. tapping into the provisions for general risks for 2022 reduces this item to €19. 2 billion. the statutory reserves of €2. 5 billion are available as an additional buffer. there is a high degree of uncertainty associated with the persistence and scale of the financial burdens the bundesbank is facing. on the basis of various calculations, our risk provisions are likely to still be sufficient this year, too. in subsequent years, however, the burdens will probably exceed our financial buffers, in which case we will report a loss carryforward. the bundesbank already did this back in the 1970s. this is therefore nothing new. with the help of future profits, we will then offset the loss carryforward over the course of time – as was already done in the 1970s. the bundesbank's balance sheet is sound. ladies and gentlemen, 6 / 7 bis - central bankers'speeches as the bank for international settlements recently put it clearly in a paper on central bank losses : " unlike commercial banks, central banks do not seek profits, cannot be insolvent in the conventional sense as they can, in principle, issue more currency to meet domestic currency obligations, and face no regulatory capital minima precisely because of their unique purpose. " 2 it is our mandate to safeguard price stability. we must fulfil this mandate, and we will fulfil this mandate. earnings developments now and in the coming years are ultimately the result of the exceptionally accommodative monetary policy of the past few years. now, a tight monetary policy is needed in order to restore price stability in a timely manner. if this entails financial burdens, we will have to – and will be able to – cope with them. the burdens will pass, and we will be able to subsequently start making profits again. the eurosystem must now do what needs to be done. and now i will hand over to joachim wuermeling, who will present further details on our annual accounts to you. 1 see, for example, weidmann, j., introductory comments at the financial statements press conference 2016, 23 february

banks have to rethink their activities fundamentally. i mention here digitalization, which is a very big challenge for the banks. it has the potential to change the business model fundamentally. the interest rate is not a favourable factor, but it is one of the factors. and as long as you have a positive impact on the economy from negative rates, you have better growth, fewer npls, so we have seen positive factors for banks. the problem for bis central bankers ’ speeches banks is not 2016, it is the medium term, if the situation becomes persistent and the business model is not adjusted, then profitability becomes a major issue. the staff projections don ’ t include the impact of the new measures. what will be the impact on inflation and growth of the package? the measures we took should bring us close to the 2 per cent target at the end of 2018. but don ’ t forget, the measures we take like the app are supposed to remain in place as long as inflation has not reached a sustainable adjustment in the path of inflation. it must be sustainable. we are not yet there. in the forward guidance we said : we expect the interest rates to be low or lower for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of our net asset purchases, which currently have an horizon to at least march 2017. can i ask you about what ’ s left in the toolbox? could we see “ helicopter drops ”? there has been a lot of skepticism recently about monetary policy, not only in delivering but in saying “ your toolbox is empty ”. we say, “ no it ’ s not true ”. there are many things you can do. the question is what is appropriate, and at what time. i think for the time being we have what we have, and it is not appropriate to discuss the next set of measures. but in principle the ecb could print cheques and send them to people? yes, all central banks can do it. you can issue currency and you distribute it to people. that ’ s helicopter money. helicopter money is giving to the people part of the net present value of your future seigniorage, the profit you make on the future banknotes. the question is, if and when is it opportune to make recourse to that sort of instrument which is really an extreme sort of instrument. there are other things you can theoretically do. there are several examples in the literature. so when we say we haven