We assess the impact of introducing an efficient payment system on financial intermediation. Two channels are investigated. Innovations in wholesale payments technology enhance the security and speed of inside money as a payment medium for customers and therefore affect the split between...

This paper provides an analysis of the competitive process in the market for personal current accounts in the United Kingdom. Using survey data, we first describe some stylised developments in this market over our sample period (1996-2001). We find a gradual change in the distribution of market...

Systemic risk is a key concern for central banks charged with safeguarding overall financial stability. In this paper we investigate how systemic risk is affected by the structure of the financial system. We construct banking systems that are composed of a number of banks that are connected by...

This paper assesses the cross-country 'stylised facts' on empirical measures of the losses incurred during periods of banking crises. Firstly, the direct resolution costs to the government are considered, and then the broader costs to the welfare of the economy (proxied by losses in GDP). The...

This paper adopts a new approach to stress testing the UK banking system. We attempt to account for the dynamics between banks' write-offs and key macroeconomic variables, through conditioning our stress test on the historical correlation between the variables and allowing for feedback effects...

This paper investigates the extent to which changes in the quantity and cost of non-bank finance impact on the quantity and interest cost of UK-owned banks' corporate lending. The results give some support to the view that there is substitution between market finance and bank loans - loan growth...

Avoiding the broader output losses to their economy is likely to be the key reason why governments avoid debt crises. Despite this, there has been little work that seeks to quantify output losses associated with such crises. This paper seeks to fill this gap. We find that debt crisis episodes...

This paper develops a dynamic model to examine the ex-ante and ex-post implications of five policy options for resolving bank failures when the authorities cannot observe the level of non-performing loans (NPLs) held by individual banks. Under asymmetric information, we show that the first-best...

This paper studies how an appreciation of the yuan affects the exports of other Asian countries. It finds mixed effects. Countries that export consumer goods to China or compete in third markets benefit from yuan appreciation, while countries that supply capital goods to China lose. These...

This paper reviews the merits of the various techniques used by authorities when resolving individual or widespread bank failures in developed and emerging market economies. In particular, the various banking crisis resolution techniques available to the authorities are classified and then...