Bundesbank Zahlungsverkehrsstatistik: payment statistics

The Bundesbank Zahlungsverkehrsstatistik is the German leg of the ECB payment statistics, and German payment and e-money institutions cannot get a small-firm derogation from it. Every resident payment service provider, and every German branch of a foreign one, files quarterly and half-yearly XML reports with the Deutsche Bundesbank. Those reports include the fraud figures that PSD2 requires firms to give BaFin, so the fraud data are filed once. Since 1 July 2026 the channel is NExt. This guide covers the legal basis, schemata, deadlines, channel and three edge cases.

1. The legal stack: one ECB regulation, two Bundesbank acts

The content comes from Regulation (EU) No 1409/2013 (ECB/2013/43), as rewritten by Regulation (EU) 2020/2011 (ECB/2020/59) of 1 December 2020 (OJ L 418, 11.12.2020). The amendment has applied since 1 January 2022. It moved reporting from annual to quarterly and half-yearly, and added fraud data, MCC breakdowns for card payments and counterpart-country detail. For the European picture, see our guide to Regulation 1409/2013.

Article 3(2) leaves each national central bank to set the reporting arrangements. On 27 April 2021 the Bundesbank Executive Board issued two acts:

• Mitteilung Nr. 8001/2021: the Anordnung for credit institutions.
• Mitteilung Nr. 8002/2021: the Festsetzung for payment service providers that are not credit institutions. This is the act that binds payment and e-money institutions. It was published in the Bundesanzeiger on 16 June 2021, revoked the 2014 notice for payment institutions from 1 April 2022, and orders immediate enforcement.

The operational detail is in the Bundesbank’s Allgemeine Richtlinien (version of 1 July 2026), the reporting schemata, two annexes (geographical breakdowns; payment systems and MCC list) and the published technical and plausibility checks.

2. Who reports: residence decides

The Festsetzung covers payment service providers resident in Germany within Article 1(1)(b) to (f) PSD2, together with branches in Germany of such providers. The Richtlinien set the consolidation rule. The population is institutions incorporated and located in Germany, including subsidiaries of foreign parents and branches of foreign head offices. Cross-border consolidation is not allowed. Transactions initiated or processed through a German branch are reported in Germany, never by the foreign parent.

• Nil returns. A firm with nothing to report still files, using the standardised XML Fehlanzeige, for every period.
• Group returns. A German parent may apply to file one Konzernmeldung for majority-owned German subsidiaries. The subsidiaries must be the same reporter type, have their payments processed by the parent, and have flows that cannot practically be separated from the parent’s.
• Interbank flows. A transaction between two PSPs and initiated by one of them is out of scope. Where a non-PSP is at either end, the PSP reports every transaction it initiates, even if it runs through an account at a third PSP.

3. The reporting schemata

The schemata follow the numbering of the tables in Annex III. Tables 7 and 8 cover payment systems and are not reported by PSPs, so there is no ZVS 7 or ZVS 8.

Stocks are taken at period end, except ZVS 2 card counts, which are taken on the first day of the following month. Flows are cumulated over the period. Amounts are in euro to two decimals, and negative values are not allowed. Each half-year must equal the sum of its two quarters, so file a corrected quarter before the half-year return, or refile the half-year after the correction.

4. Deadlines and the published calendar

Point 3 of the Festsetzung sets the deadlines. Quarterly reports are due by the last working day of the month after the quarter. Half-yearly reports are due by the last working day of the third month after the half-year, at close of business. The first reports under the amended regime covered Q1 and H1 2022. The Bundesbank FAQ says it cannot grant extensions.

Article 6(1) then sets the Bundesbank’s own deadlines to the ECB. Table 9 data go by the last working day of the second month after the quarter. January–June data go by the end of November, and July–December data by the end of the following May. Validation and data-quality questions happen in the gap between the two sets of dates.

5. Why Germany grants no derogation

Article 4 lets a central bank grant derogations to payment institutions that meet Article 32(1)–(2) PSD2 and to e-money institutions that meet Article 9(1)–(2) EMD2. The firms that benefit must together stay within 5% at national level. A firm with a derogation still reports, but only the annual Tables 4b and 5b.

The Bundesbank does not grant derogations. The reasoning in Mitteilung 8002/2021 explains why. BaFin’s fraud collection under § 54(5) ZAG includes a half-yearly delivery. A derogation would cut the firm down to annual reporting and break the single data flow that replaces that collection. The Bundesbank FAQ confirms that no Article 4 derogations exist in Germany.

6. Fraud data and § 54(5) ZAG: one filing, two recipients

§ 54(5) ZAG implements Article 96(6) PSD2. PSPs must give BaFin statistical fraud data by means of payment at least once a year, and BaFin passes it in aggregate to the EBA and the ECB. The method follows EBA/GL/2018/05; see PSD2 fraud reporting under Article 96(6).

You do not file this separately with BaFin. Under point 5 of the Festsetzung, the Bundesbank passes the statistical data to BaFin to the extent needed to replace the § 54(5) collection. The legal bases are recital 9 of Regulation 2020/2011 and Article 8(4a) of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98, and a cooperation arrangement governs confidentiality. ZVS 5 applies the EBA rules:

• Scope: unauthorised transactions plus manipulation of the payer. Only executed transactions count. First-party fraud is excluded; CEO fraud is included.
• Dating: a fraudulent transaction belongs to the period it was executed in. It is reported from detection, whether or not the case has been closed.
• Revisions: cover periods up to one year back. They can be made at the next regular reporting date.
• Losses: report losses per liability bearer in the period they are booked, without insurance refunds.

Incident reporting under § 54(1) ZAG is a separate duty owed directly to BaFin.

7. Filing through NExt

According to the Bundesbank’s NExt changeover FAQ (version of 22 September 2026), the payment statistics moved from ExtraNet to NExt on 30 June 2026. There was no parallel period. From 1 July 2026 all filings go through NExt, including corrections for past periods. The wider migration is covered in our Bundesbank ExtraNet guide.

1. User Manager: register at least one for Finanzielle Statistiken. The nomination form needs the signatures of two persons authorised to represent the firm.
2. Users: set up at least two for Zahlungsverkehrsstatistik – Einreichung von Meldungen (files and protocols). Also set up users for – Kommunikation, which carries the data-quality questions.
3. File name: ZVS.P.H.DE12345.20260630.ID.xml for a half-year, with Q for a quarter and T for a test file. The identifier is the 7-character RIAD code, because NExt does not accept bank sort codes. The Message-ID can be used only once. Upload the file as .xml or zipped.
4. Format: XML only, with no AMS portal entry. The Bundesbank’s macro workbook generates the NExt XML for you.
5. Feedback: technical and content validation files come back in XML and PDF. Plausibility questions now arrive as Excel files. Return them under the same file name, and file any fix as a correction report.

8. Worked scenarios

Facts: a German e-money institution issues prepaid cards that count as e-money, runs e-money accounts and offers credit transfers. Rule: as a resident PSP it reports every schema that applies. The FAQ treats prepaid cards that meet the ZAG e-money definition as e-money cards. Card payments carry the issuer-country by terminal-country matrix, and ZVS 9 needs MCCs every quarter. What the practitioner does: classifies each card product, makes sure processing data carry the acquirer country and MCC, and builds quarters and half-years from one transaction base. Outcome: card-dispute fraud reaches BaFin through ZVS 5, with no separate return.

Facts: a small German payment institution only does money remittance, with no accounts and no cards. Rule: no derogation is available. The Richtlinien make the initiating PSP report remittances sent and the PSP that pays out report remittances received. What the practitioner does: files the ZVS 4 remittance positions (PMR sent and received) and ZVS 5 fraudulent remittances (FMR) every half-year, checks ZVS 9 each quarter, and files the XML nil return for any empty period. Outcome: light filings with no gaps.

Facts: an EEA-authorised payment institution serves German customers, either through a German branch or under the freedom to provide services. Rule: the Festsetzung reaches branches in Germany, and the Richtlinien keep branch transactions out of the parent’s return. A provider with no German establishment is neither resident nor a branch. Under Article 3 of the Regulation it reports to its home central bank. What the practitioner does: for the branch, sets up NExt access, takes the RIAD code from the ECB’s list of payment statistics relevant institutions, and removes branch flows from the home file. For services only, follows the home regime; see our NBB guide for one example. Outcome: no double counting and no gap.

9. FAQ

10. What to do, today

• Head of reporting: confirm the RIAD code, check that the NExt User Manager and two submission users are active, and register the communication topic.
• Reporting analyst: diarise the Q4 2026 deadline of 29 January 2027, and reconcile each half-year to its two quarters.
• Fraud lead: date cases by execution date, book losses when they are recorded, and roll revisions up to one year back into the next file.
• Compliance: record that § 54(5) ZAG fraud data reach BaFin through this statistic, so no duplicate return gets built.

Related: ECB payment statistics — Regulation 1409/2013 · German supervisory reporting — Bundesbank ExtraNet · PSD2 fraud reporting under Article 96(6) · NBB payment statistics — Belgium