New issue of the journal Sveriges Riksbank Economic Review
Date
06/03/2014
Since the global financial crisis, extensive work has been underway to survey risks and to analyse the need for measures and tools to counteract financial imbalances. In this issue of the Riksbank's journal we publish three articles that highlight this work in various ways.
Magnus Jonsson and Kevin Moran analyse how the monetary policy pursued by a central bank may be affected by a new policy area: macroprudential policy. They focus on a specific macroprudential policy tool, the so-called countercyclical capital buffer. This is a tool that is intended to increase the banks' resilience by building up a capital buffer in the upward phase of the financial cycle that is then put into play in the downward phase. It can thus have effects on the economy that monetary policy may need to take into account. Jonsson and Moran first analyse the business cycle effects of the capital buffer. They then go on to discuss the trade-off between the objectives of macroprudential policy and those of monetary policy and whether there is a risk of a conflict between these objectives.
Ida Hilander analyses the major Swedish banks' short-term funding in foreign currency, which is very extensive. One reason for this is that their customers need foreign currency to fund and currency hedge foreign assets, while the banks need access to funding in kronor. By exchanging foreign currency for kronor in so-called currency swaps the banks can satisfy their customers' need for foreign currency as well as their own need for kronor. However, this also leads to refinancing risks for the financial institutions that use swaps at short maturities despite the fact that their investments are long term. The article discusses potential ways of reducing these risks.
Gustav Alfelt, Marieke Bos and Kasper Roszbach analyse data from a Swedish internet-based marketplace for consumer credit that provides more detailed information on uncollateralised lending to Swedish households and the conditions governing this lending. The internet-based marketplace matches loan applications of individuals with financial institutions that subsequently are able to make loans offers. The authors describe how the system works and analyse how loan conditions and loan volumes vary as a result of differences between the borrowers. The size of their incomes, for example, is a major factor in determining the interest rates the borrowers are offered. Whether these differences are also of significance to the monetary policy transmission mechanism and other aspects of economic policy is an open question that requires further analysis.
