Publications

08Oct
2014

The Impact of Banking Structural Reform on Household Retail Finance

Published in: 
Commentaries

There are two main objectives behind the EC proposal on banking structural reform: the financial stability objective and the economic efficiency objective.

03Feb
2014

Multilateral Interchange Fees: Competition and regulation in light of recent legislative developments

Published in: 
Research Reports
Author(s): 
Maria Chiara Malaguti, Alessandra Guerrieri

Two-sided payment card markets generate costs that have to be distributed among the participating actors. For this purpose, payment card networks set an interchange fee, which is the fee paid by the merchant’s bank to the cardholder’s bank per transaction.

06Dec
2013

Transaction Banking: Respecting its role in the real economy

Published in: 
Policy Briefs
Author(s): 
Ales Chmelar

This paper sketches the main features and issues related to recent market developments in global transaction banking (GTB), particularly in trade finance, cash management and correspondent banking. It describes the basic functioning of the GTB, its interaction with global financial markets and re-lated implications of global regulatory developments such as Basel III.

08Jul
2013

Household Debt and the European Crisis

Published in: 
Research Reports
Author(s): 
Ales Chmelar

The fall in economic output all over Europe since 2008 has had important consequences for household liabilities. Major growth in demand and supply for household credit products has generated an increase in household debt, which contributed to growth rates during the pre-crisis period but – in some countries – became household-debt overhangs and helped inflate asset bubbles.

18Feb
2013

Collateral and Credit Rationing: The role of collateral in explaining and remediating the limited flow of credit to households and SMEs

Published in: 
Policy Briefs
Author(s): 
Frederic Helsen, Ales Chmelar

European-wide data concerning both companies and households indicate that the credit rationing phenomenon, which has been predicted by theory, does in fact occur to a significant degree in the Euro

27Nov
2012

Commentary: Household Debt in Europe’s Periphery

Published in: 
Commentaries
Author(s): 
Ales Chmelar

The second-dip recession in Europe’s periphery has created a poisonous mix, which risks threatening further the financial system and the economy.

16Nov
2012

Data protection at the cost of economic growth?

Published in: 
Commentaries
Author(s): 
Elina Pyykkö

The Data Protection Regulation proposed by the European Commission contains important elements to facilitate and secure personal data flows within the Single Market.

07Nov
2011

Review of the Payment Services Directive: The question of surcharges

Published in: 
Policy Briefs
Author(s): 
Elina Pyykko

The Payment Services Directive was intended to provide more price transparency for users and a level playing field for efficient competition among different payment services by decreasing the inhibiting effects of different legislation, cross-subsidisation and non-cost-based pricing.

07Nov
2011

Options for reforming deposit protection schemes in the EU

Published in: 
Policy Briefs
Author(s): 
Karel Lannoo, Maria Gerhardt

With the financial crisis, citizens suddenly realized that different levels and forms of depositor protection co-existed in the EU, whereas they had been told for almost 20 years that a single market was in place. Current deposit insurance arrangements in Europe need to be changed, as they match neither market integration nor consumer expectations.

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