Central banks

Residential real estate (RRE) lending standards: determinants and financial stability implications

06/25/2025 European Central Bank Central banks

This article looks into residential real estate (RRE) lending standards, focusing on their key determinants and assessing the implications of loose lending standards for financial stability and the real economy. Two key insights emerge. First, lending standards tend to be procyclical – i.e., they become looser during economic upturns and tighter during downturns. Second, loose lending standards amplify the effects of negative housing market shocks on the real economy and heighten financial stability risks via an increase in the probability of default of households.

The Bank of England, Financial Conduct Authority, Prudential Regulation Authority, and Payment Systems Regulator revise Memorandum of Understanding in relation to payments in the UK

06/24/2025 Bank of England Central banks

The Bank of England (the Bank), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), and the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) (the Authorities) have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which sets out the high-level framework that we use to cooperate with one another in relation to payments in the UK.

Climate change, firms and aggregate productivity

06/24/2025 European Central Bank Central banks

Our paper uses a general equilibrium framework to examine the effects of temperature on firm-level demand, productivity and input allocative efficiency. Using data from Italian firms and detailed climate data, it uncovers a sizeable negative effect of extreme temperatures on firm-level productivity. Based on these estimates, the model generates aggregate productivity losses from local temperature fluctuations that are higher than previously thought, ranging from 0.60% to 6.82% depending on the scenario and the extent of adaptation.

The outlook for euro area business investment – findings from an ECB survey of large firms

06/20/2025 European Central Bank Central banks

This box summarises the findings of a recent ECB survey of leading non-financial companies on the outlook for business investment. The responding firms anticipate more subdued euro area investment growth over the next three years but increasing investment in other advanced economies and emerging markets. The responses suggest that, among major recent developments, technological change is the most important factor influencing investment strategies.

Where do we stand with inflationary pressures arising from price resetting?

06/20/2025 European Central Bank Central banks

Euro area services inflation has been persistent owing to a combination of factors, including a delayed response of some services prices to past shocks. This, in part, reflects staggered price setting, as the price changes of a large share of the services basket take place in just one or two months of the year. This box identifies the services items with such pricing patterns and shows that the inflation rate of services items with an annual repricing pattern responded to the past inflationary shocks with some lag.

Pages

Subscribe to Central banks