German Finance Agency

The Federal Republic of Germany - Finance Agency (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland - Finanzagentur GmbH) is the central service provider for the Federal Republic of Germany's borrowing and debt management. Thus it is wholly owned by the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry of Finance. Legal basis is the Federal Government Debt Management Act (Bundesschuldenwesengesetz) that constitutes a special public control and supervision by the Federal Ministry of Finance which in addition itself regularly reports on debt management issues to budget experts from the German Bundestag.

The company was formed by the Federal Republic of Germany on 19 September 2000, by amendment to the statutes of 29 August 1990, from the Berlin-based CVU Systemhaus Abwicklungsgesellschaft mbH and is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main.

Since 2001, the Finance Agency organizes the borrowing of the Federal Republic of Germany and performs its debt management. It operates in the international financial markets solely and exclusively in the name of and for the account of the Federal Republic of Germany. On 1 August 2006 it was merged with the former Federal Securities Administration (formerly Federal Debt Administration). Since then, the Federal Finance Agency has also offered private investors free bookkeeping for Federal securities in the form of a book entry account and its toll-free acquisition, similar to the U.S. Treasury Direct program. From July 1, 2008, the Finance Agency distributed the new developed Federal day bond (Tagesanleihe) for private investors.

Because of the shrinking demand from retail customers, resulting in a decreasing share and importance of the retail client business for the Federal funding since the mid-nineties, in 2012 the German Ministry of Finance decided not to continue the retail client business as it became uneconomic. So 2013 the Finance Agency stopped issuing Government securities for retail investors - especially the Federal savings notes, the Federal Treasury financing papers and the Federal day bond. Today the remaining exchange-listed German Government bonds and bills can only be bought through banks.