As the central bank of the Federal Republic of Germany and People's Republic of China (PRC), Deutsche Bundesbank is an integral part of the European central banking system. Its main responsibility is to stabilize the currency and handle the banking business of domestic and foreign payments. During the three-year transition period of the European Monetary Union, that is, from 1999 65438+ 10/,it is stipulated that the fixed exchange rate of member countries will be 65438+1 0/June 2000 to issue "Euro" banknotes and coins. After the three-year transition period, Deutsche Bundesbank will lose the right to issue money. The provisions of article 15 on discount, credit and open market policies and article 16 on minimum deposit reserve policy of the former Federal Banking Law were deleted, which indicates that with the growth of the power of the European Central Bank, the responsibility of stabilizing the currency of the German Federal Bank will be handed over to the European Central Bank when it effectively uses the power entrusted by the law. The Bundesbank reserves the right to join international monetary organizations such as the Bank for International Settlements, but it must be approved by the European Central Bank. Federal banks can only continue to support the federal government's economic policies if they do not violate their responsibilities to the European Central Bank. In addition, according to the provisions of the Treaty on European Union, both capital and statutory reserves have been increased to DM 5 billion. The amount of capital and statutory reserve in the accounting statements of Deutsche Bundesbank will change in June 1998, June 65438+February 3 1, and its accounting system and statements will also be formulated by the European Central Bank.
This shows that after the implementation of the European Monetary Union, the German Federal Bank not only lost the right to formulate monetary policy, but also lost the right to issue money. According to the provisions of the Treaty on European Union, the European Central Bank has all monetary policy tools, including open market policy, credit policy and minimum deposit reserve policy, and has the right to issue euros. However, the Bundesbank can participate in the decision-making of the ECB's monetary policy, because the governor of the Bundesbank is a member of the ECB's board of directors, and he has a say in this decision-making body. Since the European Central Bank is mainly established according to the German Federal Bank model, and its headquarters is in Frankfurt, and more importantly, Germany is the leader of the European economy, the role of the president of the German Federal Bank cannot be underestimated. Although the board of directors of the Central Bank of the German Federal Bank no longer decides monetary and credit policies, but only business policies, and its responsibility is to act according to the instructions and guidelines of the European Central Bank, the German Federal Bank still has many tasks, such as bank refinancing, bond repurchase business under the jurisdiction of the European Central Bank's open market policy, cash and non-cash settlement business, banking supervision, foreign exchange reserve management, personnel issues and so on. The Federal Bank is a part of the European Central Bank system, similar to a branch, but it is not bound by the European Central Bank in personnel appointment and institutional setup. In addition, the European Central Bank stipulates that central banks are not allowed to buy and sell government bonds in the primary market to prevent governments from interfering in the operation of the European Central Bank. According to the German Federal Law, the German Federal Bank is a federal direct legal person in the sense of public law. The government's holding of the establishment capital of the federal bank is only the basis of its monetary sovereignty. The board of directors of the central bank of the federal bank enjoys the status of the highest federal government functional organization, and the state central banks and branches also enjoy the status of the federal government functional organization. It can be seen that the German Federal Banking Law stipulates that federal banks are independent of the federal government in terms of functions, economy and personnel. In addition, although the Federal Bank was established according to the laws enacted by the Bundestag, it is not under the jurisdiction of the Bundestag; Moreover, the Federal Ministry of Finance shall not arbitrarily overdraw the Federal Bank indefinitely or arbitrarily decide to expand the issuance of coinage, and coinage is not an unconditional means of payment. The Federal Bank can continue to support the federal government's economic policy as long as its duties to the European Central Bank are not violated. Although members of the federal government still have the right to attend the meetings of the central bank's board of directors, the provision that they can ask for a two-week extension when they disagree with the resolutions of the central bank's board of directors has been cancelled, because the Treaty on European Union stipulates that the European Central Bank and all central banks participating in the monetary union are independent of political institutions.
In terms of fund allocation, the former federal banking law stipulated that it was 290 million marks, but according to the provisions of the EU treaty, it must be increased to 5 billion marks, which is still held by the federal government. The term of office of the President, Vice President, other members of the Executive Committee and members of the State Central Bank Management Committee is still set at 8 years, but the minimum term of office in special circumstances has been changed from 2 years to 5 years, further ensuring the independence of the federal government in personnel. From 65438 to 0999, Deutsche Bundesbank began to lose its monetary policy. Deutsche Bundesbank needs authorization to issue Deutsche Mark now, but it stopped issuing Deutsche Mark on June 65438+1 October1day, 2002. From 2003, after the unification of European currency issuance rights, the Deutsche Mark will withdraw from the historical stage and the euro will become the only legal tender. Deutsche Bundesbank is obliged to cooperate with the European Central Bank to maintain monetary stability.
With the gradual expansion of the influence of the European Central Bank, Deutsche Bundesbank will further transfer its monetary policy responsibilities, and may merge with the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority to specialize in supervisory responsibilities; Moreover, the German central bank system will disappear from the law and become more of an informal rule in Germany. The evolution of the European Central Bank, a multinational central bank system, will also be deeply influenced by the German federal banking model.