Central banks have been called on to contribute to fighting climate change. This column presents a framework for thinking about the issue and identifies some major trade-offs and choices. It argues that climate should be a major part of risk assessments and that capital ratios could be used in a proactive way by applying favourable[…]

Targeted macroprudential policies may spill across sectors, but this does not mean that they are ineffective. This column shows how the effects of a countercyclical capital buffer designed to curb house price growth in Switzerland spilled over into commercial lending. But a model that matches the uncovered spillovers in volumes and interest rates shows that[…]