This study investigates the benefits of cash in a general context. First, we explicitly address the arguments of cash critics, who are calling for cash to be abolished altogether. Second, we show that cash plays a crucial role in the current two-tier banking system. Third, we are discussing a...

Clearing Systems of Central and Eastern Europe, waiting for the TARGET2 Securities I investigate the clearing systems in Europe, and try to assess the condition of clearing houses before the launch of TARGET2 Securities. I examine the levels of development in the different regions, looking at...

It is widely perceived that the supply of mortgages, especially since the extensive liberalization of the mortgage market since the 1980s, has had implications for the Dutch housing market. In this paper we introduce a new method to estimate a credit condition index (CCI). The credit conditions...

How can tax policy improve financial stability? Recent studies point to large potential stability gains from a reform that eliminates the debt bias in corporate taxation. Such a reform reduces bank leverage. This paper emphasizes a novel, complementary channel: bank risk taking. We model the...

We investigate the trade-off between financial stability and competition policy by focusing on the merger of ABN AMRO and Fortis Bank NL in the Dutch retail banking market. The financial crisis delayed the completion of the merger giving rise to anti-competitive behavior in the transitory...

For the largest 55 German banks, we detect the presence of countercyclical yield seeking in the form of acquisition of high-yielding periphery bonds in the period from Q1 2008 to Q2 2011. This investment strategy is pursued by banks not subject to a bailout, banks characterised by high...

When banks are faced with a funding shortage in money market wholesale funding, they partly substitute by tapping other wholesale funding sources. Using auction-level data on large corporate deposits, we trace these substitution effects and their implications, which go beyond the balance sheets...

Stylized data shows a structural break in the integration of lending markets which coincides with the global financial crisis. During and after the crisis, banks actively reduced their share of foreign relative to domestic banking activity and lending in particular. This increase in lending...

The growing popularity of fintechs has led the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to publish considerations about the effects of this emerging industry on stability and efficiency in the financial sector. Against this background, this paper compares the effects of competition and collaboration...

We show that nonbanks (funds, shadow banks, fintech) reduce the effectiveness of tighter monetary policy on credit supply and the resulting real effects, and increase risk-taking. For identification, we exploit exhaustive US loan-level data since 1990s and Gertler-Karadi monetary policy shocks....