Nonbank lenders as global shock absorbers

David Elliott, Ralf Meisenzahl and José-Luis Peydró

Capital flows and credit growth are strongly correlated across countries. Macroeconomic evidence suggests that this ‘global financial cycle’ is largely driven by US monetary policy: expansionary policy by the Federal Reserve drives increases in lending globally, while contractionary Fed policy leads to a tightening of global financial conditions. Existing academic literature emphasises the role of banks in propagating these US monetary policy spillovers. But in recent decades, nonbank financial intermediaries have grown in importance. In a recent paper, we investigate the impact of US monetary policy on international dollar lending by nonbanks relative to banks, and show that nonbank lenders play an important role in absorbing US monetary policy shocks.

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International spillovers from climate policy

Francesca Diluiso and Aydan Dogan

To achieve the emissions reduction targets outlined in The Paris Agreement, many economies have started implementing various types of climate policies. These policies, which include subsidies for green production or investment, carbon taxes, and cap and trade schemes, are crucial for guiding the transition to a greener economy. However, by altering the cost and the emission intensity of domestically produced goods, they may have an impact on inflation, output, and international trade flows. This blog post explores the spillover effects due to the implementation of climate policy in a single country. We examine two major types of policies currently implemented and discussed worldwide: green subsidies and carbon taxes.

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Words which travel the world: global spillovers of the Fed information effect

Marco Pinchetti and Andrzej Szczepaniak

It is certainly not a mystery that the Fed’s monetary policy is of great importance for financial markets and the global economy. However, in a recently published Staff Working Paper, we show that the Fed’s monetary policy measures are not the only valuable piece of information contained in the Fed’s announcements. Changes in the Fed’s economic assessment drive investors’ risk behaviour and international capital allocation decisions. Through this channel, changes in Fed views can affect financial conditions and economic activity in the rest of the world, independent of policy actions.

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Le Pont de Londres: monetary policy spillovers, prudential policies and the financial centre effect

Robert Hills, Simon Lloyd, Rhiannon Sowerbutts, Dennis Reinhardt, Matthieu Bussière, Baptiste Meunier and Justine Pedrono

Large amounts of capital flow across borders. But these can be destabilising. So can recipient countries employ prudential policies to offset monetary policy changes in centre countries? And does it matter where sending banks are located? Our findings suggest it does. Our case study of French banks operating in London – part of a broader international initiative – suggests prudential policies have a much bigger offsetting effect on French banks’ lending out of the UK’s financial centre than on their lending out of headquarters in France. In line with those observations, we uncover evidence of a ‘London Bridge’ in cross-border lending: the way French banks channel funds to the UK is responsive to prudential policies in the rest of the world.

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Do emerging market prudential policies lessen the spillover effects of US monetary policy?

Andra Coman and Simon Lloyd

Prudential policies have grown in popularity as a tool for addressing financial stability risks since the 2007-09 global financial crisis. Yet their effects are still debated, with sanguine and more pessimistic viewpoints. In a recent Bank of England Staff Working Paper, we assess the extent to which emerging market (EM) prudential policies can partially insulate their domestic economies against the spillovers from US monetary policy. Using a database of prudential policies implemented by EMs since 2000, our estimates indicate that each additional prudential policy tightening can dampen the decline in total credit following a US monetary policy tightening by around 20%. This suggests that domestic prudential policies allow EMs to insulate themselves somewhat from global shocks.

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