We propose a structural framework for the development of system-wide financial stress tests with multiple interacting contagion, amplification channels and heterogeneous financial institutions. This framework conceptualises financial systems through the lens of five building blocks: financial...

Macroprudential authorities increasingly find themselves needing to assess, and act on, risks from outside the traditional banking system. How should they think about the costs and benefits of these actions? In this paper we present an approach to cost-benefit analysis for one topical issue...

How well equipped are today's macroprudential regimes to deal with a re-run of the factors that led to the global financial crisis? We argue that a large proportion of the fall in US GDP associated with the crisis can be explained by two factors: the fragility of financial sector — represented...

More widespread central clearing could enhance dealers’ ability to intermediate financial markets by increasing the netting of buy and sell trades, thereby reducing the impact of trading on balance sheets and capital ratios. Drawing on trade‑level regulatory data, we study the netting...

This paper examines the role of defined benefit company pensions in amplifying the effect of common shocks to companies' stock market valuations. It identifies and evaluates the significance of two channels of amplification: cross-holdings of equities in pension schemes, and leverage induced by...

We develop a model of dealer intermediation in bond markets that takes account of how changing regulatory requirements for banks since the financial crisis, in particular, the introduction of minimum leverage ratio requirements, affect the cost and ability of dealer banks to provide...

This paper provides a means of estimating how ‘Solvency II' regulations — introduced in the European Union in January 2016 — might affect UK life insurers' incentives to hold different types of financial assets, and how these asset holdings are likely to vary in the face of hypothetical...

We quantify the size of a fire-sale externality in the derivatives market in the absence of a macroprudential buffer on top of microprudential initial margin requirements. We show how this varies over the financial cycle with market volatility. We then assess the ability of a macroprudential...

We have developed a structural model to explain defined benefit (DB) pension funds' investment behaviour. The model is calibrated to the aggregate UK DB pension fund and four different cohorts of funds. We use the model to estimate how pension funds can be expected to adjust their asset...

We identify the degree to which changes in gilt repo market functioning have been driven by changes in the supply of — and the demand for — market intermediation. To do so, we use a structural vector auto regression (SVAR) model with sign and zero restrictions. We find that changes in gilt...