Estimates of the recapitalisation needs of the euro-area banking system vary between €50 and €600 billion. The range shows the considerable uncertainty about the quality of banks' balance sheets and about the parameters of the forthcoming European Central Bank stress tests, including the...

Overview -- A survey of literature on optimal capital requirements for banks -- Testing the Modigliani-Miller theorem of capital structure irrelevance -- For banks -- Benefits and costs of higher capital requirements for banks -- Total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) for large banks -- A critical...

The paper inspects the credit impact of policy instruments that are commonly applied to contain systemic risk. It employs detailed information on the use of capital-based, borrowerbased and liquidity-based instruments in 28 European Union countries in 1995-2017 and a macroeconomic panel setup....

How do capital and liquidity buffers affect the evolution of bank loans in periods of financial and economic distress? To answer this question we study the responses of 219 individual banks to aggregate demand, standard and unconventional monetary policy shocks in the euro area between 2007 and...

The European Central Bank (ECB) increased the emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) for Greek banks from €50 billion in February 2015 to approximately €90 billion in June 2015. Its actions were accompanied by a discussion among academics, politicians and practitioners regarding the legitimacy...