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Business and Economics > Banks and Banking

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Cover Global Financial Stability Notes
Pension Funds and Financial Stability
This Global Financial Stability Note examines the growth of the pension fund sector and the potential financial stability implications. Historically, pension funds have been seen as a contributor to financial stability because of their long-term and well-diversified liabilities. However, the sector has undergone significant structural shifts accelerated by a prolonged period of low interest rates, increasing its exposure to traditional risks while introducing emerging risks; this is reflected in growing intra-financial sector interconnectedness and exposure to long-term sovereign bonds. The recent transition to higher interest rates should be positive for the pension sector, albeit its pace and abruptness has been associated with liquidity stress and contagion risks in some countries.
Keywords:
Pension Funds; Financial Stability; Assets; Risks; Pension Plans; major pension fund sector; IMF Library; major pension savings market; structural liquidity; asset-liability duration mismatch; risk analysis; Pension spending; Pensions; Financial sector stability; Liquidity risk; Global
Cover Policy Papers
Central Bank Stress Testing—Guidance Note
International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
The expansion of central bank balance sheets has become a critical topic in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Central banks have taken unprecedented measures to ensure price stability and financial stability, particularly when traditional policy tools were insufficient. However, this expansion has led to significant balance sheet risks, resulting in notable losses as central banks have adjusted their policies in response to rising inflation. This guidance note explores these risks and introduces a modeling framework to assess them. While essential for achieving stability, the expansion of central bank balance sheets introduces significant risks that require careful management. The proposed modeling framework is a valuable tool for assessing these risks and guiding capital policy. Exploring the relationship between balance sheet size and economic outcomes could yield beneficial insights for future central bank strategies.
Keywords:
Central bank; balance sheet; stress testing; balance sheet risk; central bank equity; forecasting balance sheet; central bank bank transfer; balance sheet action; central bank profit; Financial statements; Central bank policy rate; Central bank balance sheet; Yield curve; International reserves; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
A New Dataset of High-Frequency Monetary Policy Shocks
Marijn A. Bolhuis
,
Sonali Das
, and
Bella Yao
This paper presents a new dataset of monetary policy shocks for 21 advanced economies and 8 emerging markets from 2000-2022. We use daily changes in interest rate swap rates around central bank announcements to identify unexpected shocks to the path of monetary policy. The resulting series can be used to examine cross-country heterogeneity in the impact of monetary policy shocks. We establish a new empirical fact on monetary policy spillovers across countries: the monetary policy decisions of small open economy central banks, and not just major central banks, have substantial spillover effects on swap rates and bond yields in other countries.
Keywords:
monetary policy surprises; monetary policy shocks; central banks; central bank information effect; emerging markets; high-frequency method; spillovers; monetary policy spillovers; monetary policy spillover; monetary policy shock; information effect; monetary policy decision; monetary policy surprise; Yield curve; Sovereign bonds; Central bank policy rate; Emerging and frontier financial markets; Nominal effective exchange rate; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Central Bank Digital Currencies and Financial Stability: Balance Sheet Analysis and Policy Choices
Romain Bouis
,
Gaston Gelos
,
Fumitaka Nakamura
,
Paavo A Miettinen
,
Erlend Nier
, and
Gabriel Soderberg
This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the implications for financial stability of a central bank issuing a digital currency to the public at large. We start with a systematic analysis of balance sheet changes that arise from the new liability for the central bank and the banking system, and examine how they depend on preconditions, central bank choices, and banking system responses. Based on this, we discuss the range of implications for financial stability that may arise in steady state, in the context of adoption, and in crisis times. Threats to financial intermediation in steady state arise mainly in situations where the central bank balance sheet expands, and triggers adjustment mechanisms that lead to more costly or less stable funding of the banking system, while in crisis times run risk may increase. Our analysis of policy choices to control these effects considers macroprudential policy, and an expansion of central bank lending to commercial banks, but finds that a main contribution needs to come from a design of the CBDC that encourages its use as a means of payment rather than a store of value.
Keywords:
Central Bank Digital Currency; Financial Stability; Balance Sheets; Disintermediation; Bank Runs; central bank lending; CBDC issuance scenario; market operation; central bank choice; lending to commercial banks; Central Bank digital currencies; Commercial banks; Financial sector stability; Bank credit; Bank deposits; Global; Eastern Europe; Caribbean
Cover IMF Working Papers
Central Banks and Climate Change: Key Legal Issues
Mario Tamez
,
Hans Weenink
, and
Akihiro Yoshinaga
Well-designed legal frameworks and institutional arrangments support the legitimacy of central banks’ autonomous decision-making when grounded on sound legal basis and can prevent over-stepping in the remit of other authorities. This paper explores the key legal intersections of climate change and central banks. Climate change could impact price and finanical stability, which are at the core of a central bank’s mandate. While central banks’ legal frameworks can support climate change efforts they also determine the boundaries of the measures they can adopt. Central banks need to assess their mandate and authority under their current legal frameworks when considering measures to contribute to the global response to climate change, while taking actions to fulfill their legal mandates.
Keywords:
Climate Change; Central Bank; Legal Framework; central bank development programs; autonomous decision-making; IMF working paper No. 24/192; central bank's mandate; core objective; Financial sector stability; Climate policy; Central bank mandate; Central bank legislation; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Bank Profitability in Europe: Not Here to Stay
Ruo Chen
,
Vincenzo Guzzo
,
Fazurin Jamaludin
,
Adil Mohommad
,
Ritong Qu
, and
Yueshu Zhao
Slower passthrough of policy interest rate hikes to deposit rates relative to their loan rates has led to sharply wider bank net interest margins. Combined with resilient asset quality, wider net interest margins supported record profits for European banks in 2023. Drawing on historical data from the balance sheets and income statements of over 2,500 European banks, this paper shows that abnormally high profits are expected to fade soon as interest income will decline, once policy rates start being lowered, while higher impairment costs historically have weighed on profits with a lag. Moreover, a number of structural factors that have eroded the performance of European banks in the past two decades have largely remained unaddressed and will continue being a drag on profits and capital. Therefore, policymakers should encourage banks to preserve capital buffers and build resilience to future shocks, while exercising caution when considering taxes on profits or other measures that could divert potential sources of capital from banks.
Keywords:
European banks; bank profits; interest rate margins; asset quality; bank capital; bank taxation.; bank profit; interest rate margin; bank taxation; impairment cost; Bank soundness; Financial statements; Income; Yield curve; Central bank policy rate; Europe; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
United Kingdom: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
This Selected Issues paper analyses monetary policy issues in the UK. It examines key macro and financial indicators and assesses the effects of the tightening thus far. The paper finds that monetary transmission has largely mirrored previous episodes, with the most notable exception of the mortgage channel, which has been slower due to a higher share of fixed-rate mortgages. Additionally, it reveals an outsized impact of federal announcements on UK financial markets and argues that this will place a premium on Bank of England (BoE) communications in a context where the BoE may diverge. Monetary transmission in the UK during the current cycle has mostly worked as expected and has been similar to the experiences in other advanced economies. The paper identifies identify monetary policy surprises through changes in high-frequency market indicators within a narrow window around monetary policy announcement. The results indicate that Federal Open Market Committee spillovers do have a sizable effect on monetary transmission in the UK.
Keywords:
UK construction; UK workforce; spending scenario; Fed Policy spillover; MPC decision; visa regime; Housing; Education spending; Inflation; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Central Banks Casting a Global Financial Safety Net: What Drives the Supply of Bilateral Swaps?
Jakree Koosakul
and
Alexei Miksjuk
The expansion of bilateral swap arrangements (BSAs) since the Global Financial Crisis has led to a substantial reconfiguration of the Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN). This paper examines the drivers of BSA supply using a novel dataset on all publicly documented BSAs. It finds that countries with well-developed financial markets and institutions and high trade openness are more likely to backstop other economies by establishing BSAs. In addition, their choice of BSA counterparts is driven by strong investment and trade exposures to these countries, with variation in the relative importance of these factors across major BSA providers. The paper shows that geopolitical considerations often affect such decisions, as BSAs are less likely to be established between geopolitically distant countries and more likely between countries in the same regional economic bloc.
Keywords:
Bilateral swap arrangements; geoeconomic fragmentation; global financial safety net; liquidity provision; BSA supply; BSA source country; GFSN evolution; BSA counterpart; Liquidity; Financial sector development; Financial safety nets; International reserves; Global financial crisis of 2008-2009; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Central Bank Exit Strategies Domestic Transmission and International Spillovers
Christopher J. Erceg
,
Marcin Kolasa
,
Jesper Lindé
,
Haroon Mumtaz
, and
Pawel Zabczyk
We study alternative approaches to the withdrawal of prolonged unconventional monetary stimulus (“exit strategies”) by central banks in large, advanced economies. We first show empirically that large-scale asset purchases affect the exchange rate and domestic and foreign term premiums more strongly than conventional short-term policy rate changes when normalizing by the effects on domestic GDP. We then build a two-country New Keynesian model that features segmented bond markets, cognitive discounting and strategic complementarities in price setting that is consistent with these findings. The model implies that quantitative easing (QE) is the only effective way to provide monetary stimulus when policy rates are persistently constrained by the effective lower bound, and that QE is likely to have larger domestic output effects than quantitative tightening (QT). We demonstrate that “exit strategies” by large advanced economies that rely heavily on QT can trigger sizeable inflation-output tradeoffs in foreign recipient economies through the exchange rate and term premium channels. We also show that these tradeoffs are likely to be stronger in emerging market economies, especially those with fixed exchange rates.
Keywords:
Monetary Policy; Quantitative Easing; International Spillovers; asset purchase; central bank exit strategies; inflation surge scenario; Policy conduct; appendix E. term premium; open economy; Central bank policy rate; Inflation; Unconventional monetary policies; Bonds; Exchange rate arrangements; Global
Cover Policy Papers
2023 Review of The Fund's Anti-Money Laundering and Combating The Financing of Terrorism Strategy—Background Papers
International Monetary Fund. Legal Dept.
The background papers support the stocktaking analysis and the proposed way forward for the 2023 review of the IMF's AML/CFT Strategy. The five background papers provide in-depth discussions on the following key topics: (i) illicit financial flows; (ii) the impact of money laundering in financial stability; (iii) synergies between financial integrity issues and other Fund policies and work; (iv) the Fund’s collaboration with key partners in the AML/CFT global policy architecture; and (v) stakeholders’ views of the effectiveness of the Fund’s AML/CFT engagement.
Keywords:
AML/CFT; Anti-money laundering; Money laundering; Terrorism financing; Proliferation financing; Combating the Financing of Terrorism; Financial Stability; Financial Crime; Illicit financial flows; Financial Integrity; CFT issue; CFT framework; addressing IFF; FATF standard; Global AML; Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT); Financial sector stability; Civil society organizations; Global; Baltics