Special prizes from the Deutsche Bundesbank go to students from Bayreuth

Lara Kornmesser wrote her Master's thesis on "Analysing the German banking market on the basis of a cluster analysis" as part of her Master's degree in Business Administration at the University of Bayreuth. In her thesis, she uses a cluster analysis to structure the business models of German banks into suitable groups (clusters). She identifies five clusters in which the business activities of banks can be characterised by a different mix of bank deposits, non-bank deposits, financial resources held at central banks and the deposit, lending and trading business. It analyses the stability of business models by identifying cluster migration over time. Finally, she analyses the extent to which the respective business models are reflected in bank-specific key figures and performance. Lara Kornmesser, whose work was supervised by Prof. Dr Klaus Schäfer, Chair of Business Administration I - Finance and Banking at the Faculty of Law and Economics, recently completed her Master's degree in Business Administration in Bayreuth with a focus on Finance, Accounting, Controlling, Taxation (FACT) and is now applying the knowledge she has acquired in professional practice.

Vitus Rennert wrote his Bachelor's thesis on "Dollar Dominance and Sanctions" at the Chair of Economics II - International Macroeconomics and Trade under Prof Dr Hartmut Egger. In his thesis, Rennert examines the extent to which the dominance of the US dollar as the reserve currency in international payments could be damaged by the sanctions imposed by the US Federal Reserve on the Russian central bank. Rennert first examines important factors that were decisive for the development of the US dollar as the leading reserve currency. In doing so, he combines insights from the economic and political science literature in a very impressive way in order to provide an assessment of whether central banks could change the composition of their international currency reserves if the US Federal Reserve were to increasingly use dollar reserves as an instrument of sanctions in the future.

Overall, Rennert concludes in his work that the advantages of the US dollar as a reserve currency outweigh the disadvantages, at least in the short term, so that no major adjustments by central banks in their currency portfolios are to be expected in the foreseeable future. After completing his Bachelor's degree in Philosophy & Economics and a study visit to Copenhagen, Mr Rennert will begin an internship at the German Council of Economic Experts in the coming months. He will then devote himself to new challenges in the coming winter semester as part of a Master's degree programme.

The special prize of the Deutsche Bundesbank's head office in Bavaria is awarded for outstanding theses at selected Bavarian universities in the fields of monetary policy and banking regulation as well as cash and non-cash payments and financial stability. The award ceremony took place in January on the premises of the Deutsche Bundesbank in Munich and was presented by Reinhold Vollbracht, President of the Head Office in Bavaria. Following the award ceremony, the participants had the opportunity to discuss current monetary policy issues and future joint co-operations in detail.