Emmanuel Faïk
- 19 October 2026
- OCCASIONAL PAPER SERIES - No. 401Details
- Abstract
- This paper quantifies the regulatory cost of short-term money market transactions and analyses how post-global financial crisis prudential reforms shape the structure of euro area money markets and the redistribution of central bank reserves. As the stock of reserves declines with the normalisation of the European Central Bank’s balance sheet, trading in money markets is becoming increasingly important to banks’ liquidity management. As the related money market volumes rise, regulatory constraints may become a more visible determinant of trading activity and short-term rate formation. Focusing on key Basel III requirements – the liquidity coverage ratio, net stable funding ratio and leverage ratio – the paper derives stylised estimates of the marginal regulatory cost associated with unsecured and secured interbank transactions. The results indicate that unsecured interbank lending entails material regulatory costs, estimated at around 35 basis points for lenders and around 15 basis points for borrowers in the second half of 2025, reflecting capital and stable funding requirements. By contrast, secured transactions such as repurchase agreements benefit from substantially lower costs, typically well below 10 basis points when backed by high-quality collateral. These differences create structural incentives favouring secured over unsecured intermediation, suggesting that repo markets are likely to remain the main channel for reserve redistribution as the stock of reserves declines. The findings imply that post-crisis regulation has contributed to a persistent shift in the structure of euro area money markets, with implications for liquidity distribution and monetary policy implementation.
- JEL Code
- E43 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Money and Interest Rates→Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
E52 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit→Monetary Policy
E58 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit→Central Banks and Their Policies
G21 : Financial Economics→Financial Institutions and Services→Banks, Depository Institutions, Micro Finance Institutions, Mortgages
G28 : Financial Economics→Financial Institutions and Services→Government Policy and Regulation
- 25 May 2020
- FINANCIAL STABILITY REVIEW - BOXFinancial Stability Review Issue 1, 2020Details
- Abstract
- Euro area money market funds (MMFs) provide short-term credit to banks and non-financial corporations (NFCs) through purchases of commercial paper (CP). MMFs also play an important role in non-banks’ cash and liquidity management, given that the funds offer stable value and the possibility to redeem at short notice. As the coronavirus crisis deepened, euro area MMFs experienced large outflows and a number of them had difficulties in raising sufficient cash from maturing assets and liquid positions. Stress in MMFs can impair the financial system’s and the real economy’s access to short-term funding and liquidity during crises. Monetary policy action helped to improve financial market conditions more broadly, thereby also alleviating liquidity strains in the MMF sector.
- JEL Code
- G10 : Financial Economics→General Financial Markets→General
G11 : Financial Economics→General Financial Markets→Portfolio Choice, Investment Decisions
G23 : Financial Economics→Financial Institutions and Services→Non-bank Financial Institutions, Financial Instruments, Institutional Investors