This paper analyzes the welfare impact of supervisory shopping in the banking sector. Supervisory shopping leads to a welfare-increasing "race to the top" among supervisors, if strong supervision increases banks' access to deposits by signaling that banks have a less risky balance sheet....

Custodians play a key but discrete role in the global financial market infrastructure. In Europe, they are licensed as "credit institutions ", a legal requirement for European deposit-taking institutions, and therefore they face the same prudential requirements as "traditional" banks. However,...

There is increasing debate on whether official-sector stress tests are fit for purpose and deliver what they are designed for. In the EU, this discussion focuses on the costs and benefits of such a large-scale bottom-up exercise and on the possible options to improve its usefulness for banks,...