During the Great Recession, central banks went well beyond their normal operations and provided liquidity in unlimited amounts, in foreign currency and to foreign banks. Central bank cooperation took the form of a swap network, and amounted to an episode of global monetary policy. However,...

This paper reviews the role and effects of the collateral framework which central banks, and in particular the Eurosystem, use in conducting temporary monetary policy operations. First, the paper explains the design of such a framework from the perspective of risk mitigation, which is the...

The euro area's framework for monetary policy implementation was introduced in 1999. Eleven years on, this volume examines the theoretical and historical underpinnings of the framework, how it has fared in practice, and what challenges it is likely to face in the future. The technology serving...

This article illustrates what would be the operational implications of a hypothetical demise of the euro. In order to do this, it examines what were the operational implications of establishing the euro and shows that the opposite endeavour would not just be its symmetric counterpart. The paper...

This paper looks at what economic theory and empirical evidence have to offer about the institutional conditions that are most likely to lead to a stable currency. Both theory and evidence suggest that an independent central bank with the explicit mandate to pursue price stability provides an...

On 16th November 2009, SUERF, CEPS and the Belgian Financial Forum coorganized a conference "Crisis management at cross-roads" in Brussels. All papers in the present volume are based on contributions at the conference and the SUERF Annual Lecture which followed the event.