In some recent studies, the question of the origins of central banking has been revisited, suggesting that beyond Swedish and British central banking, a number of earlier European continental institutions would also have played an important role. However, it has often been difficult to access...

Financial regulation is evolving, as policymakers seek to strengthen the financial system in order to make it more robust and resilient. Changes in the regulatory environment are likely to have an impact on financial system structure and on the behaviour of financial intermediaries that central...

Payments and financial market infrastructures are vital components of modern economies, yet they have often been overlooked by economists. However, any economic exchange, including financial market transactions, is matched by a payment leg, and the safety, efficiency, and immediacy of the...

Basel III introduces for the first time an international framework for liquidity risk regulation, reflecting the experience of excessive liquidity risk taking of banks in the run up to the financial crisis that erupted in August 2007, and associated negative externalities. As central banks play...

This open access book gives a concise introduction to the practical implementation of monetary policy by modern central banks. It describes the conventional instruments used in advanced economies and the unconventional instruments that have been widely adopted since the financial crisis of...