One area where international monetary cooperation has failed is in the role of surplus or creditor countries in limiting or in correcting external imbalances. The stock dimensions of such imbalances - net external positions, leverage in national balance sheets, currency/maturity mismatches, the...

A number of countries' authorities put in place bank rescue packages using public funds in response to the global financial crisis. Were these public recapitalisations followed by a reduction of risk in banks' loan books? To answer this question, in this paper the balance sheets and syndicated...

Early warning indicators (EWIs) of banking crises should ideally be evaluated on the basis of their performance relative to the macroprudential policy maker's decision problem. We translate several practical aspects of this problem - such as difficulties in assessing the costs and benefits of...

This paper presents a large panel study on the macroeconomic consequences of natural catastrophes and analyzes the extent to which risk transfer to insurance markets facilitates economic recovery. Our main results are that major natural catastrophes have large and signi cant negative e ects on...

It is high time we rediscovered the role of the financial cycle in macroeconomics. In the environment that has prevailed for at least three decades now, it is not possible to understand business fluctuations and the corresponding analytical and policy challenges without understanding the...

We evaluate the response of perceived tail risks in financial markets to the implementation of unconventional monetary policy by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Using information from out-of-money equity index options, we find that perceived risks decline significantly in response to both policy...

This paper analyses the discussion of a substitution account in the 1970s and how the account might have performed had it been agreed in 1980. The substitution account would have allowed central banks to diversify away from the dollar into the IMF’s Special Drawing Right (SDR), comprised of US...

The 12th BIS Annual Conference took place in Lucerne, Switzerland on 20-21 June 2013. The event brought together a distinguished group of central bank governors, leading academics and former public officials to exchange views on the conference theme of "Navigating the Great Recession: what role...

This BIS Paper is a collection of essays focusing on the drivers and effects of capital flows and the challenges they pose for the implementation of monetary and other policies. The collection draws on selected presentations made at the BIS-sponsored sessions at the Latin American and Caribbean...

Recent developments in the banking industry in emerging economies, such as competition and consolidation, and their implications for systemic stability, were discussed at a meeting of senior central bankers held at the BIS in December 2000. Revised versions of the overview paper prepared by the...