This policy note summarizes our assessment of financial sanctions against Russia. We see an increase in sanctions severity starting from (1) the widely discussed SWIFT exclusions, followed by (2) blocking of correspondent banking relationships with Russian banks, including the Central Bank,...

Even if the importance of micro data transparency is a well-established fact, European institutions are still lacking behind the US when it comes to the provision of financial market data to academics. In this Policy Letter we discuss five different types of micro data that are crucial for...

This policy letter adds to the current discussion on how to design a program of government assistance for firms hurt by the Coronavirus crisis. While not pretending to provide a cure-all proposal, the advocated scheme could help to bring funding to firms, even small firms, quickly, without...

This Policy Letter presents a proposal for designing a program of government assistance for firms hurt by the Coronavirus crisis in the European Union (EU). In our recent Policy Letter 81, we introduced a new, equity-type instrument, a cash-against-tax surcharge scheme, bundled across firms and...

The European Commission is trying to reboot the CMU project: The High-Level Forum on Capital Markets Union - a group of 28 selected experts from industry, academia and civil society - is expected to submit policy recommendations by the end of May 2020 which will feed into the Commission's new...

The spreading of the Covid-19 virus causes a reduction in economic activity worldwide and may lead to new risks to financial stability. The authors draw attention to the urgency of the targeted mitigation strategies on the European level and suggest taking coordinated action on the fiscal side...

The SVB case is a wake-up call for Europe's regulators as it demonstrates the destructive power of a bank-run: it undermines the role of loss absorbing capital, elbowing governments to bailout affected banks. Many types of bank management weaknesses, like excessive duration risk, may raise...