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The Symposium on 'Global Banking, Financial Stability, and Post-Crisis Policy Challenges' was held on 1 February 2013 on the premises of the Maastricht University. The symposium forms the concluding event [...]

We investigate the determinants of cross-border tending in the euro zone with a focus on the potentially limiting rote of cultural and poetical factors. Employing a unique data set of European cross-border loans, the study uses various specifications of gravity models, which are subsequently augmented by societal proxies. Although trade-theoretic and financial development reasoning can explain part of the surge in cross-border lending, we demonstrate that distance and borders stilt matter. Moreover, we identify cultural differences and different legal family origin as important barriers to further integration in the euro zone. Comparative Economic Studies (2009) 51, 467-499. doi: 10.1057/ces.200g.9; published online 4 June 2009 Keywords: cross-border loans, banking market integration, gravity model, culture, European single market JEL Classifications: C21, F34, F36, K20, Z10, INTRODUCTION In the recent years, European financial market integration has made a big leap forward. Yet, retail banking is lagging far behind. Most researchers and practitioners agree that banking markets [...]

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0084.2008.00509.x Byline: Stefanie Kleimeier ([dagger]), Thorsten Lehnert ([dagger],[double dagger]), Willem F. C. Verschoor ([double dagger]) Keywords: F30; F40; G15 Abstract: Abstract This paper presents a new empirical approach to address the problem of trading time differences between markets in studies of financial contagion. In contrast to end-of-business-day data common to most contagion studies, we employ price observations, which are exactly aligned in time to correct for time-zone and end-of-business-day differences between markets. Additionally, we allow for time lags between price observations in order to test the assumption that the shock is not immediately transmitted from one market to the other. Our analysis of the financial turmoil surrounding the Asian crisis reveals that such corrections have an important bearing on the evidence for contagion, independent of the methodology employed. Using a correlation-based test, we find more contagion the faster we assume the shock to be transmitted. Author Affiliation: ([dagger])Limburg Institute of Financial Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Maastricht University, Tongersestraat 53, 6225 LM Maastricht, The Netherlands (e-mail:s.kleimeier@finance.unimaas.nl;t.lehnert@finance.unimaas.nl) ([double dagger])Nijmegen School of Management, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands (e-mail:w.verschoor@fm.ru.nl) Article History: Final Manuscript Received: April 2008

This study aims at unifying the empirical research on interest-rate pass-through in the euro zone. After endogenously determining structural breaks we select optimal pass-through models, which allow for thresholds and asymmetric adjustment. By applying these models to monetary policy shocks as well as cost-of-funds changes, we show that in post-break periods monetary policy transmission has become faster, that heterogeneity across the euro zone has decreased in some banking markets, and that more competition improves the pass-through predominantly in deposit markets. As national characteristics are still important passthrough determinants, convergence remains incomplete and monetary policy will continue to operate in a heterogeneous euro zone. JEL classification: E43; E52; E58; F36 Keywords: Interest rates; Monetary policy; European Monetary Union; European banking; Competition in banking; European financial integration; Banking structure; Asymmetric adjustment; Cointegration analysis; Threshold cointegration; Structural breaks

We examine the impact of the existence on an explicit deposit insurance (DI) scheme and its design features on bilateral cross‐border deposits (CBD) in a gravity model setting. We find that both the absolute quality of a country's DI and its relative quality vis‐à‐vis other countries' DI generally affect depositor behavior. However, during systemic banking crises, cross‐border depositors primarily seek countries with the best DI schemes. Similarly, during the 2008–2009 great financial crisis, the emergency actions taken by the governments, which supply and maintain these safe havens, have led to substantial relocations of CBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]