The Belgian deposit guarantee scheme in a European perspective

During the recent financial crisis, the deposit guarantee scheme in Belgium – as in other European countries – played a role in preventing bank runs and restoring confidence : to that end, the intervention ceilings were raised substantially and the scope of the scheme was extended to include certain life insurance policies. Finally, the expansion of the system’s coverage had to be financed by a sharp increase in the contributions from financial institutions. First of all, that measure had a positive impact on the budget ; secondly, increased contributions may also boost the credibility of the deposit guarantee system. A recent European initiative proposes further ambitious reforms. Besides a better consumer protection, the European deposit guarantee schemes would be largely harmonised, thus also promoting European financial integration. Risk-weighted financing of the schemes should counteract moral hazard, benefiting financial stability. However, this proposal has yet to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council. Its impact ought to be assessed in the light of the broader package of measures aimed at making the financial system more resilient, such as the new prudential supervision structure, the Basel III proposal for stricter capital and liquidity requirements, and the possible new levies on the financial sector.deposit assurance, financial institutions, financial crisis, moral hazard

The impact of low interest rates on household financial behaviour

For the greater part of 2010, short-term and long-term interest rates in Belgium were at exceptionally low levels. Nominal interest rates reached historic lows ; in real terms, only the low point of 1974 remained unequalled. The yield curve was in turn relatively steep. In the first place, the question of whether these low interest rates have an impact on the overall financial transactions of households is examined. During the recent period, interest rates in real terms have only had a limited influence on the overall volume of savings of Belgian households. It seems that the increased savings behaviour of households and the associated accumulation of net financial assets during the period 2009-2010 can largely be attributed to economic uncertainty due to the financial crisis. But it can certainly be assumed that interest rates play some part in the selection of savings and investment vehicles by households. This is the case when they have to choose between short-term and long-term vehicles : long-term investments benefit from a clear preference in periods of high long-term interest rates or when the interest rate cycle has moved into a downward phase. During the few periods with a flat or inverted yield curve, private individuals reduce their short-term deposits since they then possibly expect a fall in long-term yields. It is primarily in the choices between short-term savings vehicles that interest rates have the greatest influence, as witnessed by the persistent switching between term and regulated savings deposits, where the recent fall in short-term interest rates worked strongly in favour of the latter vehicle. The build-up of claims on technical reserves of life insurance companies and pension funds is being stimulated by the current level of interest rates, since certain existing contracts offer a guaranteed return that is higher than the current market rates. Lastly, interest rates have some influence on the commitments entered into by households, and in the first place mortgage loans. It is primarily the number of mortgages that strongly grows in the case of low interest rates. Alongside this, low interest rates may prompt price rises on the housing market with a resulting higher level of recourse to mortgage lending. But lending does not entirely follow the trend in housing prices, partly due to a more restrictive lending policy on the part of the banks.saving, interest rates, credit, portfolio choice

Ecuadorian Migration in Amsterdam and Madrid: The Structural Contexts

AbstractThe scope of this chapter is to outline the main characteristics of the two contexts that were the scenario of the phenomenon that is the object of this book. The analysis will centre on those structural features of the cities of Amsterdam and Madrid and, more in general, of the Netherlands and Spain, that may have had an influence on the experience of Ecuadorian irregular migrants

The Study of Irregular Migration

AbstractThe study of irregular migration as a specific social phenomenon took off during the 70s in the US. Since then, the academic interest has continually grown and spread, first to Europe and, in the last years, to other regions worldwide. This interest can certainly be related to the increasing attention paid to the study of migrations more in general (Castles & Miller, 1993). The trend can be linked to those broad and complex social and economic changes, often subsumed under the concept of globalization. The specific focus on irregular migration, though gaining momentum throughout the 1980s, reached preeminent attention in the 1990s. On both sides of the Atlantic, the explosion of the so-called "migration crisis" (Zolberg & Benda, 2001) and the emergence of irregular migration as a widespread social fact raised the attention of public opinion and academics alike. Moreover, in recent years, what seemed at first to be an issue concerning only the high-income regions of the planet, now involves also medium and low-income ones, making irregular migration a truly global structural phenomenon (Cvajner & Sciortino, 2010a; Düvell, 2006)

Irregular Migration Theories

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Post-glacial regional climate variability along the East Antarctic coastal margin - evidence from shallow marine and coastal terrestrial records

We review the post-glacial climate variability along the East Antarctic coastline using terrestrial and shallow marine geological records and compare these reconstructions with data from elsewhere. Nearly all East Antarctic records show a near-synchronous Early Holocene climate optimum (11.5-9 ka BP), coinciding with the deglaciation of currently ice-free regions and the optimum recorded in Antarctic ice and marine sediment cores. Shallow marine and coastal terrestrial climate anomalies appear to be out of phase after the Early Holocene warm period, and show complex regional patterns, but an overall trend of cooling in the terrestrial records. A Mid to Late Holocene warm period is present in many East Antarctic lake and shallow coastal marine records. Although there are some differences in the regional timing of this warm period, it typically occurs somewhere between 4.7 and 1 ka BP, which overlaps with a similar optimum found in Antarctic Peninsula terrestrial records. The differences in the timing of these sometimes abrupt warm events in different records and regions points to a number of mechanisms that we have yet to identify. Nearly all records show a neoglacial cooling from 2 ka BP onwards. There is no evidence along the East Antarctic coastline for an equivalent to the Northern Hemisphere Medieval Warm Period and there is only weak circumstantial evidence in a few places for a cool event crudely equivalent in time to the Northern Hemisphere's Little Ice Age. There is a need for well-dated, high resolution climate records in coastal East Antarctica and particularly in Terre Adelie, Dronning Maud Land and Enderby Land to fully understand the regional climate anomalies, the disparity between marine and terrestrial records, and to determine the significance of the heterogeneous temperature trends being measured in the Antarctic today