Custodians play a key but discrete role in the global financial market infrastructure. In Europe, they are licensed as "credit institutions ", a legal requirement for European deposit-taking institutions, and therefore they face the same prudential requirements as "traditional" banks. However,...

Declining correspondence banking relationship was a major feature of the banking industry in the Member States of the West African Monetary Zone WAMZ from 2013 to 2016. This objective of this study, therefore, was to clarify our understanding of the drivers of declining corresponding banking...

Well-functioning risk-sharing arrangements are essential for the shock absorbing capacity and resilience of an economy, even more so for countries in a monetary union where the single monetary policy is unable to address asymmetric shocks. The common shocks that euro area member states have been...

This article surveys the literature on consumption risk sharing, focusing on the findings for the euro area and for the United States, but also presenting evidence for other countries. The literature examined found that risk sharing is higher in more mature federations, such as the United...

Declining correspondence banking relationship was a major feature of the banking industry in the Member States of the West African Monetary Zone WAMZ from 2013 to 2016. This objective of this study, therefore, was to clarify our understanding of the drivers of declining corresponding banking...

In March 2020, against the backdrop of a worsening Covid crisis, some segments of the money market fund (MMF) industry faced severe redemption pressures. Given their central role within the short term funding market, MMFs were at the heart of financial stability concerns, and legitimately...

In this paper we aim to provide a holistic understanding of the Initial Margin (IM) models used by Central Counterparties (CCPs) in Europe. In addition to discussing their relevance in terms of CCP risk management and their importance for the functioning of financial markets, we provide an...

The writing of this article predates by several months the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and the takeover of Credit Suisse which occurred in March 2023. It does not represent the views of the European Central Bank (ECB) and should not be construed as linked to or an advice for the winding down...

This investigation starts with the observation that, over the last decade, profitability rates reported by euro area (EA) banks have remained, on average, persistently below those reported by peer banks in the United States (US). In particular, banks' return on equity (ROE) has fluctuated around...

This research explores two aspects of European insurers' investment behaviour related to crises. While they are often considered as financial market stabilisers and long-term investors, there is currently a lack of knowledge about insurers' investment behaviour in crises under the regulatory...