The monthly balance sheet statistics form the nucleus of the banking statistics. They cover the assets and liabilities of domestic banks (MFIs), with the status of a deposit-taking credit institution within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 on prudential requirements for credit institutions and investment firms, broken down by balance sheet items. The figures are to be reported monthly, in the form of a statistical balance sheet reflecting the position in the books as at the end of the month. In addition, supplementary returns are required in which the major balance sheet items are classified by the debtors’ and creditors’ economic sector, by type and by maturity. Moreover, a number of off-balance-sheet data are to be reported as additional items, for example contingent liabilities, lending commitments, savings turnover, debits to non-banks’ giro accounts. Since the start of the European monetary union on 1 January 1999, all credit institutions which meet the MFI definition are required to report (MFIs are all institutions whose business is to receive deposits and/or close substitutes for deposits (for example, by issuing debt securities) and, for their own account, grant credit (including by investing in securities); in the German banking statistics they are also referred to as banks). Essentially, specialised credit institutions (investment companies that are subject to a separate reporting requirement, central securities depositories, housing enterprises with savings facilities and institutions only conducting guarantee business) were exempt from this requirement and still are. The reports from banks in Germany with no legally dependent branches abroad and the partial reports from banks with a network of branches abroad containing the data on their domestic branches are consolidated to yield reports on ”Banks in Germany (MFIs)”. This corpus of reporting institutions forms the core of the banking statistics. It provides the data for the overall monetary survey, from which the figures for the monetary aggregates are derived. This is why the tables presenting the data on this corpus of reporting institutions constitute the largest part of this Statistical Supplement.