Covered bonds have a long history as a safe financial instrument and are still today a cornerstone of bank funding in Europe. But what underpins their success and how might new regulatory initiatives influence covered bond markets? A new study provides a theoretical model of covered bonds and identifies potential drawbacks of the instrument.

A substantial number of refugees have arrived in Europe in recent months, many of whom will presumably take up work in the coming years. Under considerably different circumstances, German displaced persons migrated to West Germany following the Second World War and needed to be integrated into the labour market. A new study examines how this integration took place.

Persistently low interest rates are depressing German credit institutions' profitability – this is revealed in a survey undertaken by the Bundesbank and the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). The banks will have to subject the sustainability of their business model to critical analysis.

In the United States and Europe, efforts are being made to limit banks' proprietary trading of securities. A key argument is that if banks invest in securities, they reduce the credit supply to the real economy. A new study uses microdata to examine the role of proprietary trading in times of crisis and its impact on lending activity.

It is often said that wage moderation in Germany was the primary cause of the current account imbalances in the euro area that emerged prior to the financial crisis. A new study puts this hypothesis to the test.