In recent years, the European Union has imposed various types of financial sanctions against Russian banks. A new study examines whether these measures have affected payment flows in TARGET2.

Record inflation in the euro area has led the ECB Governing Council to start raising its key interest rates. The effects on the domestic economy and spillover effects on foreign countries may primarily depend on whether exchange rates are floating or fixed. A new empirical study shows that, during the time of the Deutschmark, the Bundesbank’s monetary policy was transmitted to a significantly greater degree to neighbouring European countries with fixed exchange rates to the Deutschmark than to those with floating exchange rates to the Deutschmark.

A Bundesbank survey shows that individuals living in Germany suffered different types of financial losses during the pandemic. Primarily individuals with lower incomes reported losses in wages and salaries which persisted much longer than other financial losses, such as falling securities prices. The latter were frequently reported at the start of the pandemic, but were subsequently offset at least partly, according to the respondents. It was mainly the more persistent wage and salary losses that changed households’ consumption and saving decisions. Altered saving and consumption behaviour can, in turn, affect the transmission of monetary policy measures.

In a securitisation, a clearly defined and immutable loan portfolio is removed from a bank’s balance sheet and converted into marketable securities – that is the general understanding of how securitisation works. However, contrary to this view, the composition of securitised loan portfolios may change during the life of the securities. A new study explains why this is the case and examines the impact of replenishment on the quality of securitised portfolios. Originators’ reputation and transparency in the securitisation market are identified as key determinants in the selection of loans used to replenish securitised portfolios.

Are asset prices driven by news or by factors unrelated to economic fundamentals, such as market sentiment? In most asset pricing models news play a dominant role, but most empirical applications find only a low explanatory power of news. A new study examines this problem using an extensive time-stamped event database and finds that about half of all high-frequency market movements can be attributed to news.