Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology that is transforming every aspect of life from finance to transportation, health care and national security. It has already started to revolutionise the way we communicate, conduct research, analyse data and streamline labour processes. However, AI...

The digital euro project will reach an important milestone this year when the preparation phase ends and the governing council of the ECB will decide whether to enter the next phase before the launch phase. This article provides an overview on how a digital euro is intended to work. An...

The introduction of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in general, and of a digital euro in particular, has attracted growing interest from academic research, central banks and political decision-makers. Most of the existing literature is focused on the impact of a digital euro on monetary...

Some observers warn that a high level of economic dependence on China could negatively affect the economic resilience of western economies and therefore recommend reducing such dependence by gradually decoupling from China. On the other hand, industry leaders emphasise the economic importance of...

The recent financial crisis has demonstrated that a failure of Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs) could seriously damage the stability of the financial system. A precise and consistent definition of a SIFI is pivotal to ensure efficient and effective regulation of the global...

The phenomenon of virtual currencies has to be distinguished from the underlying distributed ledger technologies. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies need to be subject to strict fi nancial regulation and supervision to ensure investor protection. At the same time, distributed ledger technologies...

In the context of the upcoming Brexit, a relocation of the clearing of euro-OTC derivatives for EU-based firms is the subject of controversial discussion. The opponents of a relocation argue that a relocation would cause additional costs for market participants of up to USD 100 bn over a period...