This report analyses the main developments in housing finance in the euro area in the decade, covering the period from 1999 to 2007. It looks at mortgage indebtedness, various characteristics of loans for house purchase, the funding of such loans and the spreads between the interest rates on...

This report analyses the financial position of non-financial enterprises in the euro area, in particular the amount of external financing, the choice between debt and equity and the composition and maturity structure of debt. It aims at identifying the main features of the euro area, as well as...

Applying the identification strategy employed by Driscoll (2004) for the United States, this paper provides empirical evidence for the existence of a bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission in the euro area. In addition, and in contrast to recent findings for the US, we find that in...

This paper describes participation of Cyprus households in various assets and debts using data from the first (1999) and second (2002) Cyprus Surveys of Consumer Finances. It complements our previous papers that separately described household participation in various types of assets (Haliassos...

During particularly stressed financial or macroeconomic circumstances, banks’ access to liquidity can become severely restricted. The recent financial crisis demonstrated this phenomenon all too plainly, when, in a climate of fear and uncertainty, both the interbank and international money...

This paper analyses Cape Verde's exchange rate policy and investigates whether viable alternatives exist. Cape Verde currently operates a fixed exchange rate regime which, since 1999, links the national currency to the euro. The fixed exchange rate has many benefits, but authorities have to...

This paper studies the links between of financial soundness indicators and financial crisis episodes controlling for several macroeconomic and fiscal variables in 20 OECD countries. We focus our attention on aggregate capital adequacy, asset quality and bank profitability indicators compiled by...

This work investigates the role of equity ownership for the purpose of committing the management to the pursuit of shareholder value in the presence of separation between ownership and control. By rooting the conflicts of interests between managers and shareholders upon the control of internal...

[fre] La baisse des taux d'intérêt en France : quels effets en attendre ?. . Cet article a pour objet d'étudier les effets d'une baisse des taux d'intérêt sur l'économie française, dans le contexte actuel. La démarche suivie se décompose en deux étapes : une analyse synthétique de la...