The economic analysis of financial market infrastructures has gained increasing interest. Financial market infrastructures provide the underlying network of the financial system and are critical for the smooth functioning of financial markets. The thesis includes four separate research projects unified by the notion that data from FMIs can be highly useful to gain a better understanding of system dynamics, but also offer valuable insights on financial market developments in general. The chapters rely heavily on data from TARGET2, the Eurosystem’s large-value payment system. Chapter 2 shows that a higher share of tiered payments from client banks reduces liquidity consumption by settlement banks by giving them more leeway. System designers and overseers should weigh benefits and risks of tiering carefully. Chapter 3 identifies operational outages of participants using an algorithmic approach. The developed algorithm provides a hitherto absent data set on outages that is useful for evaluating compliance with reporting requirements and risk assessment. Chapter 4 investigates changes in the collateral framework and technical aspects of collateral mobilization. A shift towards domestic channels reflects a home bias, especially during the sovereign debt crisis. Due to high inflows, culminating in the Bundesbank’s escalating TARGET2 claims, funding requirements and collateral stocks fell. Chapter 5 investigates why and how data sets on the unsecured interbank money market differ. The systematic approach highlights that different data captures cross-border loans, loans of different banking classes and recurring daily loans unevenly. The analysis is useful for developing reporting frameworks and extracting money market loans from payments data. The last chapter highlights policy implications and trends in payments
