The impact of the ECB´s targeted long-term refinancing operations on banks´ lending policies : the role of competition

El presente artículo evalúa el impacto de las operaciones de refinanciación a largo plazo con objetivo específico (TLTRO, por sus siglas en inglés) en las políticas crediticias de los bancos del área del euro. Para guiar la investigación empírica, construimos un modelo teórico en el que los bancos compiten a la Cournot en los mercados de crédito y depósito. Distinguimos entre efectos directos y efectos indirectos. Los efectos directos ocurren porque los bancos que participan en las TLTRO expanden su oferta de crédito gracias a los menores costes marginales que conllevan estas operaciones. Los efectos indirectos en los bancos que no participan operan a través de cambios en la estructura competitiva de los mercados de crédito y depósito, y su efecto es ambiguo a priori. Tras este análisis, examinamos estas predicciones teóricas con una muestra de 130 bancos de 13 países y las respuestas confidenciales a la Encuesta de Préstamos Bancarios del Banco Central Europeo. Respecto a los efectos directos, encontramos que las TLTRO contribuyeron a reducir los márgenes sobre préstamos relativamente seguros, pero que no tuvieron impacto en los criterios de aprobación de préstamos. Respecto a los efectos indirectos, la transmisión de las TLTRO tuvo lugar a través de la relajación de los criterios de aprobación de préstamos, y estuvo concentrada principalmente en los bancos expuestos a altas presiones competitivas. También hallamos evidencia de externalidades positivas en los mercados de financiaciónWe assess the impact of the Eurosystem’s Targeted Long-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTROs) on the lending policies of euro area banks. To guide our empirical research, we build a theoretical model in which banks compete à la Cournot in the credit and deposit markets. According to the model, we distinguish between direct and indirect effects. Direct effects take place because bidding banks expand their loan supply due to the lower marginal costs implied by the TLTROs. Indirect effects on non-bidders operate via changes in the competitive environment in banks’ credit and deposit markets and are a priori ambiguous. We then test these theoretical predictions with a sample of 130 banks from 13 countries and the confidential answers to the ECB’s Bank Lending Survey. Regarding direct effects on bidders, we find an easing impact on margins on loans to relatively safe borrowers, but no impact on credit standards. Regarding indirect effects, there is a positive impact on the loan supply on non-bidders but, contrary to the direct effects, the transmission of the TLTROs takes place through an easing of credit standards, and it is mainly concentrated in banks facing high competitive pressures. We also find evidence of positive funding externalitie

Data growth and its impact on the SCOP database: new developments

The Structural Classification of Proteins (SCOP) database is a comprehensive ordering of all proteins of known structure, according to their evolutionary and structural relationships. The SCOP hierarchy comprises the following levels: Species, Protein, Family, Superfamily, Fold and Class. While keeping the original classification scheme intact, we have changed the production of SCOP in order to cope with a rapid growth of new structural data and to facilitate the discovery of new protein relationships. We describe ongoing developments and new features implemented in SCOP. A new update protocol supports batch classification of new protein structures by their detected relationships at Family and Superfamily levels in contrast to our previous sequential handling of new structural data by release date. We introduce pre-SCOP, a preview of the SCOP developmental version that enables earlier access to the information on new relationships. We also discuss the impact of worldwide Structural Genomics initiatives, which are producing new protein structures at an increasing rate, on the rates of discovery and growth of protein families and superfamilies. SCOP can be accessed at http://scop.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/scop

Euro area bank profitability and consolidation

Consolidation in the euro area banking sector has been slow since the end of the global financial crisis, despite the persistent weak bank profitability. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has reinforced profitability risks in the euro area banking sector, and coincided with worse performance of some banks, notably those burdened with legacy non-performing loans. Consolidation among banks may bring benefits from both a micro- and a macroprudential perspective by generating cost synergies, increasing revenue diversification and strengthening the resilience of the banking sector. However, it comes with attendant execution risks, which need to be properly managed by banks. Consolidation may give rise to competition concerns, although empirical evidence suggests that there is room for further domestic concentration in some euro area countries and for greater cross-border integration of the European banking market. Bank mergers also increase the systemic footprint of the resulting institutions, which might be addressed by the existing macroprudential and resolution frameworks. The European Central Bank assesses consolidation from a prudential perspective, focusing on the current and future ability of the combined bank to comply with prudential requirements. To this end, it published a Guide in January 2021 in which it clarified its expectations and approach to three key prudential issues arising in the context of consolidation: setting Pillar 2 capital requirements, treatment of badwill and use of internal models

Use of grid tools to support CMS distributed analysis

In order to prepare the Physics Technical Design Report, due by end of 2005, the CMS experiment needs to simulate, reconstruct and analyse about 100 million events, corresponding to more than 200 TB of data. The data will be distributed to several Computing Centres. In order to provide access to the whole data sample to all the world-wide dispersed physicists, CMS is developing a layer of software that uses the Grid tools provided by the LCG project to gain access to data and resources and that aims to provide a user friendly interface to the physicists submitting the analysis jobs. To achieve these aims CMS will use Grid tools from both the LCG-2 release and those being developed in the framework of the ARDA project. This work describes the current status and the future developments of the CMS analysis system

Periodontitis assessed with a new screening tool and oral health-related quality of life: cross-sectional findings among general-population adults

Introduction: Periodontitis, as a chronic, multifactorial inflammatory disease, has complex relationships with other diseases and ultimately with well-being. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the association between self-report periodontitis, as measured with the recently developed and validated modified Periodontal Screening Score (mPESS), and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQol) in a large population-based sample derived from the French NutriNet-Santé e-cohort. Methods: The sample was composed of 32,714 adults (75.5% women) with a mean age of 48.8 ± 13.9 years. Periodontitis was assessed based on age, smoking, and oral health status data obtained in 2011–2012, which allowed calculating the mPESS. An mPESS ≥ 5 was used to identify individuals at risk of severe periodontitis (main exposure). OHRQoL was measured with the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) (main outcome) and the total score was dichotomized for analysis. Multivariable logistic regression analyses, considering physical health status, dietary and lifestyle confounding variables, were performed. Results: Overall, 6407 participants (19.6%) were at a high risk of severe periodontitis. A total of 7383 participants (22.6%) presented a relatively poor OHRQoL (OHIP-14 > 8, highest quartile). In the multivariable model, each of the following variables was independently and significantly associated with lower OHRQoL: older age (50–64 years), female sex, obesity, snacking between meals, frequent consumption of soft drinks and sweets/chocolate, risk of severe periodontitis, and having < 20 natural teeth were significantly. An mPESS ≥ 5 showed the highest odds for relatively poor OHRQoL (OR = 3.45; 95% CI 3.21–3.72). Conclusion: The results support the association between periodontitis and OHRQoL in non-clinical samples. The use of mPESS could be tested in future prevention programs aiming at improving OHRQoL

Saturation effects in the sub-Doppler spectroscopy of Cesium vapor confined in an Extremely Thin Cell

Saturation effects affecting absorption and fluorescence spectra of an atomic vapor confined in an Extremely Thin Cell (cell thickness $L < 1 \mu m$) are investigated experimentally and theoretically. The study is performed on the $D_{2}$ line ($\lambda ~= ~852 nm)$ of $Cs$ and concentrates on the two situations $L = \lambda /2$ and $L =\lambda$, the most contrasted ones with respect to the length dependence of the coherent Dicke narrowing. For $L = \lambda /2$, the Dicke-narrowed absorption profile simply broadens and saturates in amplitude when increasing the light intensity, while for $L =\lambda$, sub-Doppler dips of reduced absorption at line-center appear on the broad absorption profile. For a fluorescence detection at $L =\lambda$, saturation induces narrow dips, but only for hyperfine components undergoing a population loss through optical pumping. These experimental results are interpreted with the help of the various existing models, and are compared with numerical calculations based upon a two-level modelling that considers both a closed and an open system.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figure