Financial innovation and integration have spurred financial development and enhanced consumer choice. Financial integration has also been associated with the emergence of large, complex, cross-border financial institutions (LCFIs). This has changed risk profiles and made cross-border contagion...

The euro area financial system took excessive risks during the global credit boom, which in some countries led to an unsustainable increase in credit, higher asset prices and housing booms. This process helped to fuel large imbalances within the euro area. Banks played a key role in channelling...

The fiscal framework needs in practice to achieve a balance between, on the one hand, effective budgetary rules that allow governments to commit to sound policies and, on the other, judgements and discretion in how these are applied so that the framework adequately reflects the complexity of the...