Macro Prudential Regulation and Supervision

The global financial crisis revealed the failure of central banks, finance ministries and financial regulatory authorities in the advanced economies to detect and address systemic risks that had been building up in the financial sector since the early 2000s. The generally benign economic environment – positive growth and low inflation -- contributed to supervisors’ focusing on controlling risks in individual financial institutions rather than looking for signs of overall risk.

Several countries in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe used a rich set of prudential instruments in response to last decade’s creditand housing boom and bust cycles. We collect detailed information on these policy measuresin a comprehensive database covering 16 countries at a quarterly frequency. We use thisdatabase to investigate whether the policy measures had an impact on housing price inflation. Our evidence suggests that some - but not all - measures did have an impact.

European Commission: a European Economic Recovery Plan

Against the back drop of the escalating financial crisis and an increasingly hamstrung real sector, in November 2008 the European Commission recommended a European Economic Recovery Plan, which was approved in principle by the European Council in December 2008. The Recovery Plan is a comprehensive action plan for a coordinated response to the economic crisis.

The economic development of the Russian Federation in 2011 was quite successful, de-spite a range of difficulties that affected the European financial market. Russia was one of the leaders among the G-20 in terms of its GDP growth rate (4.3%). This economic growth created an environment that was beneficial to the expansion of banking activities. Accord-ing to the results of the banking sector for 2011, loans to non-financial organisations grew by 26% and loans to households rose by almost 36%. At the same time, the loan portfolio improved in terms of quality in some respects.