We analyse foreign bank penetration in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)and its influence on private sector credit,taking into account both cross-border credit and credit by foreign bank subsidiaries. By combining BIS and BankScope data into a unique database we make a clear distinction between...

We study whether foreign and domestic banks in Central and Eastern Europe have reacted differently to business cycle conditions and host country banking crises. Our unique panel dataset comprises data of more than 300 banks for the period 1993-2000, with detailed information on bank ownership....

On the basis of focused interviews with managers of foreign parent banks and their affiliates in Central Europe and the Baltics, we analyse foreign banks’ small business lending and internal capital markets. This allows us to complement the standard empirical literature, which has difficulty...

Following Diamond (1997) and Fecht (2004) we use a model in which financial market access of households restrains the efficiency of the liquidity insurance that banks' deposit contracts provide to households that are subject to idiosyncratic liquidity shocks. But in contrast to these approaches...

The challenges of payment transactions in electronic commerce were initially underestimated, as is now clear in the light of technological progress and stricter legislation, meaning traditional business models are increasingly coming up against their limits. Only secure, user- friendly and...

Despite existing security standards and security technologies, such as secure hardware, gaps between users’ demand for security and the security offered by a payment system can still remain. These security gaps imply risks for users. In this paper, we introduce a framework for the management...

Central bank spending on the operation of inter-bank funds transfer systems may range from below one million to nearly a billion US dollars annually. This paper examines how such costs are incurred and recovered to pursue payment systems efficiency in different countries and under alternative...

This paper analyses the effects of innovations in retail payment systems on the conduct and implementation of monetary policy. Recent innovations in retail payment systems (access products and electronic money products) are placed in the context of historical institutional change in the...

In this study, the interaction between the competition-cooperation nexus and regulation in retail payment systems is analysed by applying the main lessons from the theory of network industries. This is justifiable on the grounds that the payment systems industry inherently has many...

The hypothesis put forth is that the U.S. dollar's role as a vehicle currency in global foreign exchange markets is linked to the low cost of payments-related intraday credit. After reviewing the types of intraday credit facilities extended to participants on payment systems settling the major...