The bank lending survey for the euro area

This occasional paper explains why the bank lending survey was developed by the ECB and describes its main features. It discusses the importance of credit developments for both the economy and the functioning of monetary policy, and further clarifies why the survey was introduced. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates that the value added of implementing a bank lending survey for the euro area lies in particular in the way it provides greater insight into developments in credit standards, non-interest rate credit conditions and terms, the risk perception of banks and the willingness of banks to lend. Credit standards are the internal guidelines or criteria of a bank which reflect the bank’s loan policy. The terms and conditions of a loan refer to the specific obligations agreed upon by the lender and the borrower. This occasional paper also considers similar surveys conducted by the Federal Reserve System in the US and by the Bank of Japan.Survey; Banks; Credit Standards; Credit Markets; European Central Bank; Federal Reserve; Bank of Japan

Evaluation of the Quick Environmental Exposure and Sensitivity Inventory in a Danish Population

Objectives. To evaluate a Danish translation of the Quick Environmental Exposure and Sensitivity Inventory (QEESI). Methods. The study included two groups: one comprised a random sample of 2000 individuals drawn from the Danish Civil Registration System; the other comprised 315 patients with chemical intolerance. Results. The evaluation suggested good reliability for the four QEESI scales in terms of internal consistency and coefficients between test and retest scores. The discriminatory validity was the largest for the Chemical (inhalant) Intolerance and Life Impact Scales. Using combined cut-off scores for these two scales provided a sensitivity of 92.1 and a specificity of 91.8 and yielded a prevalence of 8.2% in the population group. Conclusions. The Danish translation of the QEESI showed overall good reliability and validity. We recommend the use of the combined Chemical (inhalant) Intolerance and Life Impact Scales in future studies