Financial Systems And The Role Of Banks In Monetary Policy Transmission In The Euro Area

This 2003 book offers the most systematic analysis available of the impact of European Central Bank monetary policy on the national economies of the Eurozone. Analysing macro and micro-economic evidence, with chapters by central bank economists, including a discussion chapter by eminent macroeconomists, it is an essential contribution to research on the subject.

The start of the European monetary union gave additional impetus to the lively debate on the effects of monetary policy and the appropriate strategy for central banks. This book collects papers and comments by leading academics and central bankers such as O.Issing, M.King, B.McCallum, A.Meltzer, L.Svensson and H.Tietmeyer. The volume examines methodological questions, the actual role played by the financial sectors and labour markets in implementing monetary policy in Europe, and the likely future developments in these areas.

Overall the resilience of large euro area banks has improved, but important vulnerabilities remain. Capital buffers are in aggregate sizeable relative to immediate threats, but some banks are especially vulnerable to credit risk and others to market risks, including a substantial rise in risk premia. The banking system as a whole has ample liquidity, against a backdrop of ECB support. At a structural level, low profitability is found in many banks across all business models, despite improving conjunctural conditions. The interconnectedness analysis shows that strong buffers are effective in dampening both vulnerabilities and onward transmission. Risks to financial stability relate mainly to tighter financial conditions, weaker growth, and policy and geopolitical uncertainties. The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU (Brexit) could potentially disrupt financial market and services, and thus the wider economy. Also, policy reversals could hurt debt sustainability and test the cohesion of policy making in the union.

More than two years ago the European Central Bank (ECB) adopted a negative interest rate policy (NIRP) to achieve its price stability objective. Negative interest rates have so far supported easier financial conditions and contributed to a modest expansion in credit, demonstrating that the zero lower bound is less binding than previously thought. However, interest rate cuts also weigh on bank profitability. Substantial rate cuts may at some point outweigh the benefits from higher asset values and stronger aggregate demand. Further monetary accommodation may need to rely more on credit easing and an expansion of the ECB’s balance sheet rather than substantial additional reductions in the policy rate.

An introduction to the way that central banks implement monetary policy through market operations. It explains monetary policy operations in normal times, reviews the basic mechanics of financial crises, and explains what central banks need to do to fulfil their monetary policy and financial stability mandates when markets and banks are impaired.

The ECB has taken a range of actions to address bank funding problems, eliminate excessive risk in sovereign markets, and safeguard monetary transmission. But euro area financial markets have remained fragmented, driving retail interest rates in stressed markets far above those in the core. This has impeded the flow of credit and undermined the transmission of monetary policy. Analysis presented here indicates that the credit channel of monetary policy has broken down during the crisis, particularly in stressed markets, and that SMEs in these economies appear to be most affected by elevated lending rates.Given these stresses, the ECB can undertake additional targeted policy measures, including through additional term loans, collateral policies, and private asset purchases.

Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Economics - Finance, , language: English, abstract: The aim of the present paper is to present the monetary policy of the ECB and record the changes in this policy caused by the recent economic crisis from 2007 onwards. Monetary policy is the process by which the monetary authority of an economic area checks the quantity and the cost of money in the economy. The official goals of monetary policy are the control of inflation, the growth of the economy, the reduction of unemployment and the control of the exchange rate in relation to foreign currencies. Monetary policy may be expansive, namely to increase the amount of money in the market by encouraging economic development, but causing an increase in inflation, or it can be limiting, i.e. to reduce the amount of money in the market by keeping inflation low. In the Euro Zone, monetary policy is pursued by the European Central Bank (ECB), which was created with the birth of the euro, when it took over the responsibility for the design and practice of monetary policy by the central banks of the Eurozone countries and operates as an independent, supranational but European organization.