By Isabel Argimón, María Rodríguez-Moreno In recent decades, we have witnessed the expansion of complex institutions, which are organised in different legal entities and conduct different business in different locations. The diversification benefits that may arise because of the different sources of income and of the lack of synchronization have to be balanced against the[…]
By Jean-Charles Bricongne, Rémy Lecat Despite the large capital outflows during the Covid-19 crisis, emerging economies did not make extensive use of capital controls. Indeed, these have had limited effects on capital outflows, being more effective on inflows. This column shows that macroprudential measures on the financial sector, which are increasingly part of the policy[…]
By Tobias Adrian Russia’s invasion of Ukraine raises financial stability risks for the world and poses questions about the longer-term impact on economies and markets. The war, amid an already slowing recovery from the pandemic, is set to test the resilience of financial markets and poses a threat to financial stability as discussed in our[…]
By Tobias Adrian, Gita Gopinath, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, and Rhoda Weeks-Brown Capital flows can help countries to grow and to share risks. But economies with large external debts can be vulnerable to financial crises and deep recessions when capital flows out. External liabilities are riskiest when they generate currency mismatches—when external debt is in[…]
By Pablo Hernández de Cos The term crypto-assets typically refers to a wide range of highly heterogeneous assets whose common trait is the fact that they are a digital representation of value or a set of contractual rights. Moreover, crypto-assets rely heavily on distributed ledger technology (DLT) for their transmission, trading and storage. However, unlike[…]
By Simon Gilchrist, Bin Wei, Vivian Yue, Egon Zakrajšek The interconnections between the balance sheet of a sovereign and those of global financial institutions can lead to a widening of sovereign spreads unrelated to country-specific fundamentals. This column explores this financial-sovereign risk nexus and documents that a substantial portion of the co-movement among sovereign spreads[…]
By Zsolt Darvas and Catarina Martins This briefing paper investigates the practice of close cooperation and examines the banking system performance in Bulgaria and Croatia. The factors that could pose risks to Bulgarian and Croatian banks are identified. This document was prepared by the Economic Governance Support Unit at the request of the ECON Committee.[…]
By Aitor Erce, Enrico Mallucci, Mattia Picarelli The debt jurisdiction affects a government’s ability to restructure its debt, is key to shaping the restructuring process, and affects the timing and conditions of market access. This column introduces a new database that codes sovereign defaults according to the legal jurisdiction governing the debt instruments. The database[…]
By Angelo Duarte, Jon Frost, Leonardo Gambacorta, Priscilla Koo Wilkens and Hyun Song Shin Key takeaways Public payment infrastructures build on the central bank’s foundational role in the monetary system by promoting competition and interoperability between payment platforms. They can reduce costs for users and promote financial inclusion. Brazil’s recent experience with the Pix retail[…]
Heavily reliant on commodity exports, remittances and tourism, the economies of the Caucasus and Central Asia and their financial systems are vulnerable to volatile external shocks. The Chart of the Week shows how exposed countries in the region are to such disruptions, which in the past have caused economic downturns and financial distress. Although the[…]