Finance

May 28, 2019

Not Everyone’s Cup of Tea

MiFID II, together with MiFIR (Regulation (EU) No 600/2014), was intended to create a more transparent, competitive and integrated financial market in the EU by reducing trading outside regulated markets, increasing protection for investors and consumers, and improving financial stability.
June 7, 2018

Why the EU Needs the City Too

The UK might appear to have the most to lose from Brexit if City firms find it harder to sell financial services into the EU. But London has actually consolidated its position as the world’s leading financial centre since the vote to leave, helped by strong signals that the UK at least will keep its markets open. The EU should follow this lead.
February 28, 2018

Socially Useless? The Crucial Contribution of Finance to Economic Life

Financial firms serve many useful functions which individuals and households could scarcely undertake on their own. These functions include maturity transformation, matching lenders and borrowers at low cost, facilitating the transfer of risk and consumption across time and between people, monitoring, and diversification of investments.
February 16, 2018

Financial Stability Without Central Banks

A ‘free’ banking system without a central bank provides incentives for banks to act with restraint. Their lending policies are, in effect, tied to each other. If one over-reaches, it will be pulled back as others present notes to and demand reserves from the bank that is lending recklessly.
February 12, 2018

Which is a Better Bet: Bitcoin or the Dollar?

Keeping your funds in cash is generally viewed as much safer than holding them in stocks. This is because, on any given day, the value of the US and UK capital stock – as measured by the NYSE and FTSE indices – can easily fluctuate by one or two percentage points either way.
February 5, 2018

London’s Global Reach and the Half a Trillion Dollars Equity Prize

As the world’s leading international financial centre, London faces fascinating opportunities as well as some significant challenges in coming years. This is as a result of Brexit, increased international competition from other global financial centres, such as New York, and the changing face of finance itself.
January 24, 2018

How to Develop Secondary Markets for Non-performing Loans?

The ECB seeks to increase trading in non-performing loans by reducing the pricing gap between prospective investors and banks. For this to happen, there need to be structural reforms aimed at reducing recovery times, as well as better access to information about loans and debtors. Only when the price offered by investors is in line with the price demanded by banks will we see more activity in distressed debt markets.