Cross-border banking is currently not stable in Europe. Cross-border banks need a European safety net. Moreover, a truly integrated European-level banking system may help to break the diabolical loop between the solvency of the domestic banking system and the fiscal standing of the national...

The Global Financial Crisis has shown that the international financial system is vulnerable to breakdown. The financial trilemma demonstrates that financial stability, international banking and national financial supervision cannot be combined. National supervisors force international banks to...

An anticipated benefit of the prospective European Banking Union is stronger supervision of European banks. Another benefit would be enhanced resolution of banks in distress. While national governments confine themselves to the domestic effects of a banking failure, a European Resolution...

After the global financial crisis, the size of the banking sector has become a hotly debated topic. To measure the size of the banking system a country's banking assets divided by the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is commonly applied as a general yardstick. This paper shows that this...

To measure the size of the banking system, a country's banking assets divided by the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is commonly applied as a yardstick. But is the banking assets to GDP ratio an appropriate yardstick? This paper shows that comparing a country's banking sector only by...

Both theory (game theory) and practice (recent financial crisis) indicate that national interests prevail in cross-border resolution. National authorities aim for the least-cost solution for domestic taxpayers. This results in an undersupply of the public good of global financial stability....

In this paper we propose country-specific and systemic metrics that allow quantifying whether cross-border banking in a country (or region) takes a desirable form. Applying these metrics to the EU countries, we find that the countries with the largest banking centers, UK and Germany, are well...

Since the European Council of June 2012, ‘Banking Union' is a key item for the EU's policy agenda. This contribution outlines the state of the policy debate – identifying the elements that are missing but important from a theoretical viewpoint. We make concrete proposals as to how the...

Understanding the changing role of central banks and the novel policies they have pursued recently is absolutely essential for analysing many economic, financial and political issues, ranging from financial regulation and crisis, to exchange rate dynamics and regime changes, and QE and prolonged...

The state-led resolution of the 2007-2009 financial crisis has proven to be costly. Calls are being heard in Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland to cap the size of domestic banks. Is small beautiful? In this policy paper, we first match bailing out cost data to the relative size of banks...