Which are the new frontiers in central banking? Which things have changed in the aftermath of the financial, economic and sovereign debt crisis? These are questions raised frequently by central bankers, academics and interested observers alike. There are quite a few areas to cover in answering...

This paper provides an overview of supply and demand factors influencing the availability of euro-denominated debt instruments that qualify as high-quality liquid assets (HQLA) in the euro area. The paper estimates the supply of HQLA issued by the public and private sectors as well as the...

From the onset of the 2007-2009 crisis, the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank have aggressively lowered interest rates. Both sets of changes are at odds with an anti-inflationary stance of monetary policy; indeed, as the crisis began in August 2007 inflation expectations were high...

The European Central Bank (ECB) recently became engaged in macro-prudential policies and the micro-prudential supervision of the largest Euro area banks. These new tasks should help complete financial integration, and make the Euro area more resilient to financial instability risks. However, the...

Legislation laying down the institutional system of the Banking Union was finalised in April 2014. In accordance with the regulations, non-euro area Member States, including Hungary, may notify the ECB at any time if they wish to participate in the common system even before the euro is adopted....

In the article, we describe the European Commission's (EC) recapitalisation proposals which were announced as part its road map to stability and growth on 12 October 2011. The EC is calling for ‘significantly' higher capital reserves to help banks replenish their balance sheets to withstand...

At the heart of the eurozone crisis lies the inability of the current monetary policy framework to avert the on-going financial disintegration and to break the vicious circle that ties up banks and governments in a death grip (liquidity ring-fencing), which does not allow policies to deal...

The Irish financial crisis caused unprecedented damage to the national economy. While large amounts of tax-dollars have gone towards understanding the events leading up to the crisis, there has not been a concentrated effort to consolidate the lessons learned for both Ireland and the European...

The present crisis has revealed that, as expected, much of the safety net for handling failures in the banking system is deficient, particularly for cross-border banks, and the present problems had to be handled by a range of ad hoc measures. The principal new measure that needs to be undertaken...

The Banking Union increased bank capital requirements and tightened crisis response policy instruments, favoring bank resolutions or liquidations, while hindering bank bailouts. The ECB has gained new powers as the Eurozone's main supervisory authority and as the leading 'resolution or...