Hüttl, Pia, Merler, Silvia, (2016), “An update: Sovereign bond holdings in the euro area – the impact of QE”, Bruegel, 22 November Since the ECB’s announcement of its QE programme in January 2015, national central banks have been buying government and national agency bonds. In this post we look at the effect of QE on sectoral holdings of government bonds, based on our recently updated dataset. Relevant Posts Pia Huttl, Silvia Merler, …Read More

Lehmann, Alexander, (2016), “Credit recovery in Spain: NPL resolution was essential, but success depended on broader sector reform”, Bruegel, 21 November Growth in Spain again exceeded expectations this year, and bank deleveraging appears to have reached an end. Addressing non-performing loans was a precondition for recovery, and it required comprehensive financial sector reform. Relevant Posts Panagiotarea, Eleni, (2016), “The Political Economy of NPLs resolution: Ownership and conditionality”, Hellenic Observatory LSE, …Read More

Beck, Thorsten, Carletti, Elena, Goldstein, Itay, (2016), “The current state and future challenges of financial regulation”, VoxEu, 22 November The Global Crisis has led to a new wave of regulation. This column argues that improved capital requirements, liquidity requirements, bank resolution and cross-border regulatory cooperation are welcome, but that unresolved problems remain. Specifically, regulation may become too complex, focus too little on macroprudential risks, be inadequate to deal with crises …Read More

Petropoulos, Georgios, (2016), “Collaborative economy”, Bruegel, 18 November Georgios Petropoulos was invited to speak at a workshop on collaborative economy organised by the Internal Market Committee (IMCO) of the European Parliament on November 8. The focus of the workshop was the definition of, and distinction between, professional version non-professional/occasional provision of services, as well as the future of a regulatory framework for non-professional provision of services and prosumers. It included a debate …Read More

Claeys, Grégory, (2016), “What role for the financial markets in Europe?”, Bruegel, 16 November The European European financial system is too strongly bank-based. How can it be rebalanced to become favourable to growth and employment again? Relevant Posts Chalmers, Adam William, (2015), “Financial industry mobilisation and securities markets regulation in Europe”, European Journal of Political Research, Issue 3, Volume 54, August Kincaid, G. Russell, (2016), “Different lessons For Europe from American financial …Read More

Dombrovskis, Valdis, (2016), “What next for Europe’s banking system?”, Bruegel, 15 November Speech by Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis at Bruegel on 15 November 2016 Relevant Posts De Groen, Willem Pieter, Gros, Daniel, (2016), “European banks under stress (tests): Which remain the most resilient?”, CEPS, 11 August Stanislas de Finance, Risto Nieminen, (2016), “Testing the resilience of banking union”, European Added Value Unit PE 558.778, April

Bartels, Bernhard, Eichengreen, Barry, Weder di Mauro, Beatrice, (2016), “No smoking gun: Private shareholders, governance rules, and central bank financial behaviour”, VoxEu, 14 November Recent events have heightened concerns that central banks with private shareholders might differ in their financial behaviour from purely public central banks, perhaps focusing excessively on profits, dividends, and risks to their balance sheets. Using information on shareholding and new data on governance rules for 35 …Read More

Georgiadis, Georgios, Mehl, Arnaud, (2016), “Financial globalisation and monetary policy effectiveness”, VoxEu, 14 November In theory, financial globalisation has ambiguous effects on monetary policy. It may dampen effectiveness, but it may also amplify it through exchange rate valuation effects. This column shows evidence that the latter effect has dominated since the 1990s. Financial globalisation has increased the output effect of a tightening in monetary policy by as much as 25%. …Read More

Dabrowski, Marek, (2016), “Are advanced economies at risk of falling into debt traps?”, Bruegel, 10 November One of the consequences of the global financial crisis has been rapid growth in public debt in most advanced economies. This Policy Contribution assesses the size of public debt in advanced economies and considers the potential consequences of sovereign insolvency. Relevant Posts Jaramillo, Laura, Mulas-Granados, Carlos, Kimani, Elijah, (2016), “The Blind Side of Public Debt Spikes”, …Read More

Roth, Felix, Jonung, Lars, Nowak-Lehmann, Felicitas, (2016), “Public support for the euro”, VoxEu, 11 November The euro as a common currency has recently been the subject of harsh criticism by economists from both sides of the Atlantic, including claims that citizens in some Eurozone countries are turning against the it. This column argues that, in fact, the euro currently enjoys comfortable popular support in each of the 12 original member states …Read More