March 2024: Recent trends in central bank independence

by Davide Romelli Central bank independence is widely considered the backbone of modern economic policy analysis. This column examines the evolution of central bank independence for a sample of 155 countries from 1923 to 2023, and reveals a remarkable global shift towards enhancing the independence of monetary authorities. Despite the post-2008 challenges and the recent[…]

February 2024: ECB Supervision Newsletter

by the ECB The supervison newsletter is published every three months. It highlights and summarises key issues in banking supervision that are of interest to banks and the wider financial sector. This issue includes among others an Interview with Claudia Buch and articles on rise in outsourcing, data quality, ICT and security risks, and stronger[…]

February 2024: ECB Keynote Speech – Euro area international financial flows: analytical insights and measurement challenges

by Philip R. Lane Keynote speech by Philip R. Lane, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the joint Banco de España, Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics and European Central Bank conference “External statistics after the pandemic: addressing novel analytical challenges” in Madrid. Links: ECB Keynote speech: Euro area international financial[…]

February 2024: SUERF Policy Brief – The ECB Single Supervisory Mechanism: Any Effects on Bank Competition?

by Burkhard Raunig, Michael Sigmund Since the introduction of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) in 2014, systemically important banks in the euro area are directly supervised by the ECB. From a static and dynamic perspective, we examine how this fundamental shift towards unified supervision under the SSM affects the competitive position of SSM banks. A[…]

January 2024: EU banks’ liquidity coverage ratio declined but remains well above the minimum requirement

by the European Banking Authority The European Banking Authority (EBA) published its Report on liquidity measures, which monitors and evaluates the liquidity coverage requirements currently in place in the EU. Between June 2022 and June 2023, the EU banks’ liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) declined but remained comfortably above the minimum requirement. However, within this review[…]

January 2024: Housing Affordability – A New Dataset

by Nina Biljanovska, Chenxu Fu and Deniz Igan The rapid increase in house prices in the past few years, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, raises concerns about housing affordability. The price-to-income ratio is a widely-used indicator of affordability, but does not take into account important factors such as the cost of financing. The aim of[…]