Evidence suggests that the Colombian interbank funds market is an inhomogeneous and hierarchical network in which a few financial institutions fulfill the role of “super-spreaders” of central bank liquidity among market participants. Results concur with evidence from other interbank markets...

Financial inclusion - access to financial services - is increasing worldwide, often with official support. This special feature discusses the implications for central banks. Greater financial inclusion changes the behaviour of firms and consumers in ways that could influence the effectiveness of...

We analyze the behavior of an array of financial assets around European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy decisions. We document that European and U.S. equities accumulate sizeable excess returns in the week ahead of an announcement. Pre-ECB announcement returns are stronger from the...

We model the allocation of central bank liquidity among the participants of the interbank market by using network analysis' metrics. Our analytical framework considers that a super-spreader simultaneously excels at receiving (borrowing) and distributing (lending) central bank's liquidity for the...

The Federal Reserve's (Fed) monetary policy implementations often involve trades of huge amount in a short period of time, which dwarf any individual dealer's inventory capacity. Because of this, dealers strategically manage inventory, and charge uncompetitive pricing to the Fed, which is...

This paper examines key considerations around central bank digital currency (CBDC) foruse by the general public, based on a comprehensive review of recent research, centralbank experiments, and ongoing discussions among stakeholders. It looks at the reasonswhy central banks are exploring retail...

This paper presents the arguments for and against central bank digital currency increasing financial inclusion. Financial inclusion is arguably one of the many reasons for issuing a central bank digital currency. The arguments in support of CBDC increasing financial inclusion are that CBDC can...

Many central banks are currently investigating Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and possible designs. A recent survey conducted by the European Central Bank has found that both citizens and professionals consider privacy the most important feature of a CBDC. We show how a central bank could...

With the emergence of Bitcoin and recently proposed stablecoins from BigTechs, such as Diem (formerly Libra), central banks face growing competition from private actors offering their own digital alternative to physical cash. We do not address the normative question whether a central bank should...

This paper analyses the consequences for monetary policy in the presence of currencies issued by firms. Such currencies generate seignorage revenues and information on consumers. In a benchmark model of imperfectly competing firms, information breaks the usual portfolio indeterminacy as in...