Roots and recourse mortgages: handing back the keys

Summary of Banco de España Working Paper no. 220

Roots and recourse mortgages: handing back the keys

En este estudio identificamos diferencias en las condiciones de las hipotecas asociadas al arraigo de los prestatarios tras separar este efecto de otros factores que explican dichas condiciones. Para esto usamos datos de préstamos hipotecarios en España de la Central de Información de Riesgos, complementados con datos de hipotecas titulizadas para un ciclo financiero completo. Identificamos que los prestatarios extranjeros con poco arraigo pagan tipos de interés más altos que aquellos con mayores vínculos en el país. También encontramos que un bajo nivel de arraigo está asociado con tasas más altas de impago y con mayores incentivos a no continuar pagando la deuda hipotecaria ante situaciones de patrimonio neto negativo. En general, identificamos que el arraigo es un factor muy relevante que explica las diferencias en las condiciones de las hipotecas en el momento de su concesión, así como las decisiones de impago. Desde el punto de vista de la política, nuestros resultados tienen importantes implicaciones para el entendimiento de las consecuencias de transitar hacia un régimen de dación en pago, y para la efectividad de la política macroprudencial.In this study we disentangle the effect of roots from other confounding factors to explain differences in immigrants’ outcomes in the mortgage market. Using loan-level data from the Spanish Credit Register complemented with data on securitized mortgages over a complete financial cycle, we identify that foreign-born borrowers with shallow roots to the host country pay higher mortgage rates at origination than similar debtors that are better-settled. We also find that weak roots are associated with higher default rates and with greater incentives to go into default in negative equity situations. Overall, we show that rootedness explains differential loan conditions at origination and default behavior in mortgages. From a policy perspective, our results have important implications for understanding the potential consequences of moving away from recourse mortgage regimes, and for the effectiveness of macroprudential policy

Optimisation of growth parameters to obtain epitaxial Y-doped BaZrO3 proton conducting thin films

We hereby report developments on the fabrication and characterization of epitaxial thin films of proton conducting Y-doped BaZrO (BZY) by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on different single crystal substrates (MgO, GdScO, SrTiO, NdGaO, LaAlO and sapphire) using Ni-free and 1% Ni-containing targets. Pure, high crystal quality epitaxial films of BZY are obtained on MgO and on perovskite-type substrates, despite the large lattice mismatch. The deposition conditions influence the morphology, cell parameters and chemical composition of the film, the oxygen partial pressure during film growth being the most determining. Film characterization was carried out using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron and atomic force microscopies, wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. All films show a slight tetragonal distortion that is not directly related to the substrate-induced strain. The proton conductivity of the films depends on deposition conditions and film thickness, and for the optimised conditions its total conductivity is slightly higher than the bulk conductivity of the target material (3 mS/cm at 600 °C, in wet 5% H/Ar). The conductivities are, however, more than one order of magnitude lower than the highest reported in literature and possible reasoning is elucidated in terms of local and extended defects in the films

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Spanish commercial real estate market

Artículo de revistaThe COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the recent performance of the Spanish commercial real estate market. In particular, the crisis has led to a sharp decrease in non-residential investment and has triggered a correction in sale prices, transaction numbers and new financing operations. It has also affected Spanish real estate investment trusts specialising in this market, both in terms of the number of vehicles created and of their stock prices and the value of their real estate assets. By contrast, to date there has been no significant deterioration in credit quality linked to the commercial real estate market

Analysis of the usability of capital buffers during the crisis precipitated by COVID-19

Este trabajo analiza la capacidad de uso de los colchones de capital voluntarios y regulatorios por parte de las entidades bancarias, aprovechando la experiencia de la pandemia de COVID-19. En primer lugar, se encuentra que la usabilidad de los colchones macroprudenciales está muy poco limitada en España por otros requerimientos sobre las entidades. Adicionalmente, se encuentra que los colchones existentes sobre los requerimientos de capital al comienzo de la pandemia han tenido efectos significativos en los mercados financieros, lo que ha afectado a la evolución de las cotizaciones bancarias europeas, así como a las tenencias de acciones bancarias por parte de los fondos de inversión. Por último, no se observa un efecto agregado significativo del nivel disponible de colchones de capital sobre los requerimientos de capital en la provisión de financiación a las empresas no financieras en España. Sin embargo, sí se identifican efectos negativos en la oferta de crédito de los bancos con menores colchones voluntarios a las empresas con las que tenían relaciones más recientes. Asimismo, cuando el análisis se realiza exclusivamente sobre las operaciones crediticias sin garantía pública, sí se observa que las entidades con menor margen de capital por encima de los requerimientos redujeron más el crédito.This paper analyses the ability of banks to use voluntary and regulatory capital buffers, taking advantage of the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first place, we find that the usability of macroprudential buffers is not hampered in Spain by other parallel banks’ requirements. Additionally, we find that the existing voluntary buffers over capital requirements at the beginning of the pandemic have had significant effects on the financial markets, affecting the evolution of European bank stock prices, as well as the holdings of bank shares by investment funds. Lastly, we find no significant aggregate effect of voluntary capital buffers on the provision of financing to non-financial companies in Spain. However, we do identify negative effects in the supply of credit from banks with lower voluntary buffers to companies with which they had more recent relationships. Likewise, if the analysis is carried out exclusively on credit operations without public guarantees, we observe that those banks with lower voluntary capital buffers reduced credit more

Bipolar "table with legs" resistive switching in epitaxial perovskite heterostructures

We report the experimental investigation of bipolar resistive switching with "table with legs" shaped hysteresis switching loops in epitaxial perovskite GdBaCo O /LaNiO bilayers deposited by pulsed laser deposition. The possibility of varying the resistivity of GdBaCo O by changing its oxygen content allowed engineering this perovskite heterostructure with controlled interfaces creating two symmetric junctions. It has been proved that the resistance state of the device can be reproducibly varied by both continuous voltage sweeps and by electrical pulses. The symmetric devices show slightly non-symmetric resistance profiles, which can be explained by a valence change resistive switching model, and presented promising multilevel properties required for novel memories and neuromorphic computing

El impacto de la pandemia de COVID-19 en el mercado inmobiliario comercial español

Artículo de revistaLa pandemia de COVID-19 ha tenido un fuerte impacto en la evolución reciente del mercado inmobiliario comercial de España. En particular, la crisis ha provocado una importante caída de la inversión no residencial y ha desencadenado una corrección de los precios de compraventa, de las transacciones y de las nuevas operaciones de financiación. Por otra parte, la crisis también ha afectado a las sociedades anónimas cotizadas de inversión en el mercado inmobiliario (SOCIMI) especializadas en este mercado, en lo que respecta tanto al número de vehículos creados como a la evolución de su cotización y al valor de sus activos inmobiliarios. En cambio, por el momento, no se observa un deterioro significativo de la calidad de crédito vinculado al mercado inmobiliario comercial

Análisis de la capacidad de uso de los colchones de capital durante la crisis generada por el COVID-19

This paper analyses the ability of banks to use voluntary and regulatory capital buffers, taking advantage of the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first place, we find that the usability of macroprudential buffers is not hampered in Spain by other parallel banks’ requirements. Additionally, we find that the existing voluntary buffers over capital requirements at the beginning of the pandemic have had significant effects on the financial markets, affecting the evolution of European bank stock prices, as well as the holdings of bank shares by investment funds. Lastly, we find no significant aggregate effect of voluntary capital buffers on the provision of financing to non-financial companies in Spain. However, we do identify negative effects in the supply of credit from banks with lower voluntary buffers to companies with which they had more recent relationships. Likewise, if the analysis is carried out exclusively on credit operations without public guarantees, we observe that those banks with lower voluntary capital buffers reduced credit more.Este trabajo analiza la capacidad de uso de los colchones de capital voluntarios y regulatorios por parte de las entidades bancarias, aprovechando la experiencia de la pandemia de COVID-19. En primer lugar, se encuentra que la usabilidad de los colchones macroprudenciales está muy poco limitada en España por otros requerimientos sobre las entidades. Adicionalmente, se encuentra que los colchones existentes sobre los requerimientos de capital al comienzo de la pandemia han tenido efectos significativos en los mercados financieros, lo que ha afectado a la evolución de las cotizaciones bancarias europeas, así como a las tenencias de acciones bancarias por parte de los fondos de inversión. Por último, no se observa un efecto agregado significativo del nivel disponible de colchones de capital sobre los requerimientos de capital en la provisión de financiación a las empresas no financieras en España. Sin embargo, sí se identifican efectos negativos en la oferta de crédito de los bancos con menores colchones voluntarios a las empresas con las que tenían relaciones más recientes. Asimismo, cuando el análisis se realiza exclusivamente sobre las operaciones crediticias sin garantía pública, sí se observa que las entidades con menor margen de capital por encima de los requerimientos redujeron más el crédito

CARB-ES-19 Multicenter Study of Carbapenemase-Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli From All Spanish Provinces Reveals Interregional Spread of High-Risk Clones Such as ST307/OXA-48 and ST512/KPC-3

ObjectivesCARB-ES-19 is a comprehensive, multicenter, nationwide study integrating whole-genome sequencing (WGS) in the surveillance of carbapenemase-producing K. pneumoniae (CP-Kpn) and E. coli (CP-Eco) to determine their incidence, geographical distribution, phylogeny, and resistance mechanisms in Spain.MethodsIn total, 71 hospitals, representing all 50 Spanish provinces, collected the first 10 isolates per hospital (February to May 2019); CPE isolates were first identified according to EUCAST (meropenem MIC > 0.12 mg/L with immunochromatography, colorimetric tests, carbapenem inactivation, or carbapenem hydrolysis with MALDI-TOF). Prevalence and incidence were calculated according to population denominators. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed using the microdilution method (EUCAST). All 403 isolates collected were sequenced for high-resolution single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) typing, core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST), and resistome analysis.ResultsIn total, 377 (93.5%) CP-Kpn and 26 (6.5%) CP-Eco isolates were collected from 62 (87.3%) hospitals in 46 (92%) provinces. CP-Kpn was more prevalent in the blood (5.8%, 50/853) than in the urine (1.4%, 201/14,464). The cumulative incidence for both CP-Kpn and CP-Eco was 0.05 per 100 admitted patients. The main carbapenemase genes identified in CP-Kpn were blaOXA–48 (263/377), blaKPC–3 (62/377), blaVIM–1 (28/377), and blaNDM–1 (12/377). All isolates were susceptible to at least two antibiotics. Interregional dissemination of eight high-risk CP-Kpn clones was detected, mainly ST307/OXA-48 (16.4%), ST11/OXA-48 (16.4%), and ST512-ST258/KPC (13.8%). ST512/KPC and ST15/OXA-48 were the most frequent bacteremia-causative clones. The average number of acquired resistance genes was higher in CP-Kpn (7.9) than in CP-Eco (5.5).ConclusionThis study serves as a first step toward WGS integration in the surveillance of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales in Spain. We detected important epidemiological changes, including increased CP-Kpn and CP-Eco prevalence and incidence compared to previous studies, wide interregional dissemination, and increased dissemination of high-risk clones, such as ST307/OXA-48 and ST512/KPC-3

Optimisation of growth parameters to obtain epitaxial Y-doped BaZrO3 proton conducting thin films

We hereby report developments on the fabrication and characterization of epitaxial thin films of proton conducting Y-doped BaZrO (BZY) by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on different single crystal substrates (MgO, GdScO, SrTiO, NdGaO, LaAlO and sapphire) using Ni-free and 1% Ni-containing targets. Pure, high crystal quality epitaxial films of BZY are obtained on MgO and on perovskite-type substrates, despite the large lattice mismatch. The deposition conditions influence the morphology, cell parameters and chemical composition of the film, the oxygen partial pressure during film growth being the most determining. Film characterization was carried out using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron and atomic force microscopies, wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. All films show a slight tetragonal distortion that is not directly related to the substrate-induced strain. The proton conductivity of the films depends on deposition conditions and film thickness, and for the optimised conditions its total conductivity is slightly higher than the bulk conductivity of the target material (3 mS/cm at 600 °C, in wet 5% H/Ar). The conductivities are, however, more than one order of magnitude lower than the highest reported in literature and possible reasoning is elucidated in terms of local and extended defects in the films