The prolonged crisis exposed the vulnerability of a monetary union without a banking union. The Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), which started operating in November 2014, is an essential step towards restoring banks to health and rebuilding trust in the banking system. The ECB is today...

The ECB's monetary policy has received considerable attention in recent years. This is less the case, however, for its regular monetary policy preparation and decision-making process. This paper reviews how the factors usually considered as critical for the success of a central banking system...

This paper studies bank loan pricing in the euro area over the period October 2008 to October 2014. This period was characterised by market fragmentation and extended liquidity provision by the ECB. For our analysis we develop a theoretical framework which accounts for the main financing risks...