Europe
Capital flows to Central and Eastern Europe
This IMF Working Paper examines the evolution of the net external asset positions of Central and Eastern Europe (CEEC) countries over the past decade, with a strong emphasis on the composition of their international balance sheets.
ECB paper on the European corporate bond market
The ECB Occasional Paper "Implications for liquidity from innovation and transparency in the European corporate bond market" offers a new framework for the assessment of financial market liquidity and identifies two types: search liquidity and systemic…
Simon Brooks appointed Vice-President of the EIB
Simon Brooks, a former Director in the Macroeconomic Policy and International Finance Directorate of the UK Treasury, has joined the European Investment Bank (EIB) as Vice-President.
Paper on European and US sovereign bond markets
The Research Technical Paper "An empirical analysis of transparency-related characteristics of European and US sovereign bond markets" from the Central Bank & Financial Services Authority of Ireland examines transparency-related characteristics of…
Cross-border bank contagion in Europe
This European Central Bank Working Paper, published 27 July, analyses cross-border contagion in a sample of European banks from January 1994 to January 2003.
Fiscal convergence before entering the EMU
This European Central Bank Working Paper, published 27 July, addresses the question of whether a reduction of public deficits, such as imposed by the Maastricht fiscal criteria, is a necessary or useful step on the road to the adoption of the euro.
Comment: Will McCreevy's approach work?
The European commissioner for internal market and services, Charlie McCreevy, has called for an industry-driven "code of conduct" to reduce the costs of European cross-border settlement and clearing, rather than propose a directive. Will his famous light…
Juncker says ECB 'pointing' to rate rise
Euro group president Jean-Claude Juncker said Monday 10 July the European Central Bank has been signalling that it will raise interest rates again before long.
EU Parliament wants information on SWIFT
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Thursday 6 July asking EU governments, the Commission and the European Central Bank to explain what they know about the SWIFT agreement.
Comment: LCH.Clearnet chief departs
After months of speculation that his days were numbered, David Hardy resigned as chief executive of LCH.Clearnet on 5 July. The announcement was met with an air of inevitability. The episode raises some fundamental questions about the European clearing…
Europe suffers worrying wave of financial chaos
According to this article published Wednesday 5 July by Bloomberg, Europe is increasingly encircled by financial woes. Emerging markets are being hit by a wave of selling, sending currencies falling and interest rates jumping.
IMF paper on impacts of non-adoption of the euro
The IMF Working Paper "Price impacts of non-adoption of the euro for small European countries" uses the Sjaastad model to analyze the price-making power of major currencies with regard to the prices of traded goods in small countries that have not…
Paper on European monetary policy
The paper "Is European monetary policy appropriate for the EMU member countries? A counterfactual analysis" analyses whether interest rate paths in the EMU member countries would have been different if the previous national central banks had not handed…
Comment: Eastern European tightrope
Amidst renewed inflation fears in the developed world and the prospects of further interest rate hikes there, a number of central banks in Eastern Europe and the Baltics will be silently grateful for a little bit of latitude. But with question marks…
Comment: Papademos on asset bubbles
In a speech in Madrid last week, the ECB vice-president, Lucas Papademos, drew a line of distinction between the ECB's policy on asset prices and that of the US Fed. In doing so he sought to communicate that the Issing legacy is firmly in tact.
ECB publishes SIPS report
On 31 May 2006, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) approved the "Business continuity oversight expectations for systemically important payment systems (SIPS)" report (published Friday 9 June).
Paper on monetary policy and asset prices
The University of Warwick Research Paper "Monetary policy and asset prices : What role for central banks in new EU member states?" deals with the relationship between monetary policy and asset prices.
Comment: Sharing the cost of banking crises
The need for an ex-ante commitment to sharing the cost of cross-border banking crises in Europe is suggested in a speech by Eva Srejber and a paper by Charles Goodhart and Dirk Schoenmaker. But is it feasible?
Buba's Weber on European financial integration
In the speech 'European financial integration and (its implications for) monetary policy' given on 23 May Axel Weber of the Deutsche Bundesbank said financial integration is a mostly beneficial process which is driven by market forces as well as…
Central bankers to hold panel meeting
Top central bankers from Europe, Japan and the United States will participate in a panel meeting in Washington on Monday 5 June.
IMF paper on the European single financial market
The IMF Working Paper "The lender of last resort in the European single financial market" published May 2006 examines challenges in effectively implementing the lender-of-last-resort function in the EU single financial market.
Enforcement and the stability and growth pact
The IMF Working Paper "Enforcement and the stability and growth pact: How fiscal policy did and did not change under Europe's fiscal framework" published May 2006, says that the Stability and Growth Pact has been a success in numerous EU countries,…
Trichet on why Europe needs structural reforms
In the speech 'Why Europe needs structural reforms' given on 24 April Jean-Claude Trichet of the ECB said the eurozone economy could grow nearly a percentage point faster each year if governments make markets more flexible.
Does the euro zone really need political union?
Seven years after the launch of the euro, this article published on Friday 21 April asks how much political union is needed to make monetary union work more effectively?