This report presents a long-term view of the evolution of financing of EU non-financial corporations (NFCs) in recent decades. It finds a decline in NFC leverage since at least 2008, and across countries, size categories and industries. It also documents a growing role of non-bank financial...

After the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, the authorities have introduced a number of measures aimed at the business sector. Support has largely been given to the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic and measures to contain it. A considerable share of banks' loan customers in these sectors have...

Due to their relatively high yields and low return correlations with traditional asset classes, insurance-linked securities (ILS) are often described as an attractive investment opportunity. Yet, the investor base for ILS is largely dominated by a few specialized investment managers. The aim of...

Economic Memo is a new publication series from Danmarks Nationalbank. Please, update your News service settings if you want to receive a notification when the next Economic Memo is available. The first Economic Memo shows that the equity risk premium has doubled after the financial crisis. As a...

Im System der deutschen Privaten Krankenversicherung kommt es bei lebenslangen Verträgen zum Aufbau von Alterungsrückstellungen. Beim Versichererwechsel werden diese nach alter Rechtslage gar nicht, nach der Gesundheitsreform 2007 nur im Rahmen eines Basistarifs übertragen. Zu ermitteln ist...

Current economic developments in Portugal do not portend well. The Portuguese GDP is shrinking and the growth forecast for 2012 is gloomy - in the EU only the forecast for Greece is even worse (Figure 1). Moreover, Portugal is now having to pay double-digit interest rates on its bonds, its debt...

The weakness of credit growth in the United States and Europe has given rise to concerns that the financial crisis has led to a credit crunch which has deepened the recession in the real economy and poses a serious threat to the recovery that seems to have started in the most recent months. In...

Credit rating agencies have been under the spotlight since the beginning of the current financial crisis. They failed in their assessment of US residential mortgage- based securities in the mid-2000s. Nevertheless, investors generally consider credit ratings useful to help form their views on...

This paper investigates the potential impact of the growing influence of the opinions of credit rating agencies (CRAs) on market dynamics. This impact can be seen as a consequence of the information content of the ratings themselves or indirectly as a consequence of the "hardwiring" of ratings...

This paper reviews the role and effects of the collateral framework which central banks, and in particular the Eurosystem, use in conducting temporary monetary policy operations. First, the paper explains the design of such a framework from the perspective of risk mitigation, which is the...