The 1990s were characterized by substantial financial sectorconsolidation across a large number of industrializedcountries...

The global financial crisis that began in mid-2007 has renewedconcerns about financial instability and focused attention onthe fundamental role of central banks in preventing andmanaging systemic crises. In response to the turmoil, centralbanks have made extensive use of both new and existing...

[...]This paper addresses how central banks can resuscitatelending chains by providing information that reduces uncertainty about participants along the chains. This action has been taken before: the Bank Holiday of 1933, declared byPresident Franklin Delano Roosevelt, resolved uncertaintyabout...

The boom in nonprime mortgage lending that occurred inthe United States between 2004 and 2006 was quicklyfollowed by rapid increases in the rate of delinquencies andforeclosures on these loans.1 This pronounced deteriorationalarmed investors, the public, and policymakers.2...

[...]This article develops a stylized game-theoretical model toanalyze banks’ intraday liquidity management behavior in anRTGS environment. It analyzes the strategic incentives under Envision an economy with two identical banks using an RTGSsystem operated by the central bank to settle...

Monetary policy has traditionally been viewed as theprocess by which a central bank uses its influence overthe supply of money to promote its economic objectives. Forexample, Milton Friedman (1959, p. 24) defined the tools ofmonetary policy to be those “powers that enable the [FederalReserve]...

Globalization and technological innovation are two of themost pervasive forces affecting the financial system andits infrastructure. Perhaps nowhere are these trends moreapparent than in the internationalization and automation ofpayments. The evolving landscape is most obvious in retailpayments...

[...]We observe several trends in payment timing from 1998 to2006. After 2000, the peak in payment activity shifts to laterin the day. Indeed, post-2000, a greater concentration ofpayments occurs after 17:00. At the same time, however, severalfactors have been associated with increased payment...

This article investigates the factors influencing the timingand funding of payments in the CHAPS Sterling system,drawing where appropriate on comparisons with paymentactivity in Fedwire...

[...]This article discusses how the Federal Reserve manages itscredit risk exposure from daylight overdrafts. We first presenta simple economic framework for thinking about the causes ofcredit risk and the possible tools that lenders have to help them manage it...