According to the ECB's Bank Lending Survey (BLS), some banks in the Eurozone may tighten their credit standards for households more significantly in 2026 than in 2025. The reason for this is the more constraining calculation of regulatory capital requirements. In contrast, the tightening would be less severe for corporations. This desynchronisation is unusual. It tends to illustrate the effect of the ramp-up of the output floor, which would particularly affect housing loans. However, the effect would remain very limited: only one in ten banks is considering to change its standards. New loans to households and corporations would keep their momentum largely unchanged.
The issue of European sovereignty has been on everyone's mind recently. Among its many dimensions, sovereignty in retail digital payments is often cited as an urgent gap to be filled. In fact, two-thirds of digital payments in the Eurozone rely on non-European providers, mainly American. However, this situation is not inevitable, and 2026 could well be the year when a European alternative takes off and reaches critical mass.
Since 1 January 2025, banks in the European Union have had to consider the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of loans to households for house purchases when calculating their regulatory capital. This new prudential requirement is ill-suited to the French market. The criteria for granting home loans are based mainly on the debt service-to-income ratio, leading to historically low default rates. However, since mid-2025, the supervisor has been paying increasing attention to the LTV of home loans in France, which is fuelling concerns about higher borrowing costs and an increase in down payment rates.
While the Fed eased its monetary policy on 10 December for the third consecutive FOMC meeting, without making any guarantees about future action, the Bank of England (BoE), the ECB and the Bank of Japan (BoJ) are holding their respective meetings this week. The BoE is expected to cut its key interest rate, the ECB to keep it steady, and the BoJ to raise it. These decisions come amid resilient growth performance despite shocks, which should lead central banks to remain cautious, whether in terms of easing (a residual cut expected for the BoE and none for the ECB) or raising key rates (which should remain a gradual process in Japan). This climate of monetary policy neutrality could be accompanied by greater pressure on long-term sovereign rates than during the period of monetary easing.
Since 2020, households’ real estate purchasing capacity has improved significantly in the tightest housing markets. Our metric, which monitors changes in the amount of space a typical household can purchase, has increased by almost 20% in areas where demand for housing significantly outstrips supply. In contrast, in less constrained or even unconstrained areas, purchasing capacity decreased during the same period.
Today's deficits are tomorrow's taxes. Therefore, it is logical for households to save rather than spend the public transfers they receive, since these are incurred through debt and will eventually need to be repaid.
Following PwC in June, the ECB presented its own assessment of the costs of a digital euro for banks in the Eurozone. Thanks to extensive cost synergies, their initial investment over the first four years, estimated at EUR 18 billion by PwC, would, according to the ECB, be within a more modest range (between EUR 4 and 5.77 billion). But this amount, which has attracted a lot of attention, is not the only issue at stake, as the recurring cost of replenishing banks’ reserves with the Eurosystem could, in the long term, weigh more heavily on financing conditions.
Responding to tangible signs of tension in the money markets, the Fed announced the end of its QT effective on December 1. In line with its operational framework, the Fed will maintain the size of its balance sheet for some time. Subsequently, to ensure its supply of reserves remains at a sufficiently “ample” level, it will increase it again. However, the Fed should be more cautious.
Against all odds, Argentine President Javier Milei’s party emerged victorious in the 26 October midterm elections, despite suffering an electoral setback less than two months earlier. What was behind this turnaround, given that the economic and social situation has deteriorated significantly since the spring? Will the easing of tensions on the peso and the risk premium be enough to avoid a recession? Will US financial support be enough to avert any risk of default on foreign debt?
The public debt ratio is rising again in the Eurozone, while its equivalent for non-financial companies (NFCs) is decreasing. The October 2025 Fiscal Monitor of the IMF forecasts that the public debt ratio will increase by 5 points of GDP in the euro area by 2030 compared to its 2024 level (87.2% of GDP, compared to 83.6% in 2019). Against this background, the debt of non-financial companies reached its lowest level since Q3 2007 in Q2 2025, at 66.6% of GDP.
Anxious relief, such was the mood in Washington DC last week during the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), from official and private sector participants alike. Relief that the global economy, and all its regional parts, are doing much better than expected in the Spring despite the US tariff shock. Anxiety that underneath the recent benign economy and markets, tectonic shifts are underway, still in their early stages and poorly understood.
Modernity sometimes conceals, under new guises, a return to old precepts: a currency backed 100% by the safest assets, bank deposits guaranteed by tangible reserves, the search for unfailing financial stability. Stablecoins (digital tokens backed by highly safe and liquid assets) are part of this logic. However, in our modern economies, banks only keep a small fraction of deposits in reserve with the Central Bank: this is the principle of "fractional reserves" which gives them the ability to create money (the remaining deposits can be allocated to credit). Beyond the intellectual interest that they attract, stablecoins raise a broader question: if their use were to become widespread, would they not risk making it more difficult to finance the economy?
The Treasury market is one of the pillars of the global financial system. This is due to its size and liquidity, its role in setting borrowing conditions, and the safety that these securities provide.However, the announcement of so-called 'reciprocal' tariffs last April caused turmoil in the market, reminding us that Treasuries had become more sensitive to periods of stress…
In August 2025, the decrease in market rates (Euribor, swap, etc.), which began in October 2023, had been passed on in full to the rates on new bank loans to corporations and households in the Eurozone. Banks generally tend to adjust the pricing of new loans to the cost of their resources with comparable maturities. Swap rates are good reference rates in this respect, as they provide a reliable approximation of what the market considers to be the expected path of short-term rates for a wide range of horizons.
Beyond supply factors (see US Federal debt: the risks of abundance) and demand factors (see A safe haven put to the test), banking regulations have also contributed to weakening the Treasuries market. This is the subject of the third instalment of our EcoInsight series on Treasuries.Since 2023, the US authorities have taken various measures to support the liquidity and stability of the Treasuries market (greater transparency of transactions, increased use of centralised clearing of repurchase agreements, programme to buy back the least traded securities).However, the balance sheet constraints faced by the banks responsible for intermediating this market remain an aggravating factor in times of stress
At a time when central banks are navigating between persistent inflation, economic slowdown, and unprecedented structural challenges, their room for maneuver has never been so closely scrutinized. Should they lower rates to support growth, maintain them to anchor inflation, or raise them in the face of unexpected shocks? Between balancing acts, threats to their independence, and regional divergences, the choices made by central bankers will shape the economy of tomorrow.
After historic increases, lending rates for households and businesses are calming down. Should we expect a return to normal?
Economic growth in emerging countries held up well in the first half of 2025. So far, US tariff measures have had little impact on global trade and therefore on their exports. Furthermore, domestic demand, another driver of growth in these countries, remains strong, in particular thanks to the support of domestic credit. Bank lending growth has returned to its pre-COVID level for a large number of countries, it exceeds potential GDP growth in real terms. This is a trend to watch, as it could lead to a deterioration in foreign trade and/or an increase in non-performing loans.
Following on from the first part of our EcoInsight series on US Treasuries, which focused on the US administration's budget plans (US federal debt: the risks of abundance), this second part we are examining how president Trumps’ excesses have harmful effects on the demand for federal paper.The profile of US Federal Government creditors has changed significantly over the past 20 years. The appeal of Treasuries for so-called ‘long-term’ investors (i.e. foreign central banks, resident pension funds and insurers) has waned. More ‘short-term’ investors (i.e. leveraged funds), who favour procyclical strategies, are now very active in this market. This shift has contributed to undermining the safe-haven status of Treasuries, which are now more sensitive to periods of stress
The Genius Act, signed into law on July 18 by President Donald Trump, aims to stimulate stablecoin holdings and demand for T-bills from their issuers. This legislation could ultimately have a significant impact on the scope of monetary policy, banking intermediation, and financial stability. However, the U.S. administration's hope that the increase in net demand for short-term Treasury securities will match that of stablecoins may not entirely come to fruition.
After a long decline of real long-term interest rates in advanced economies, the direction has changed in recent years. The prospect of rising private- and public-sector financing needs is raising concern that this movement is not over. Empirical research shows that the long-run dynamics of long-term interest rates are predominantly driven by economic growth, demographic factors (life expectancy and working-age population growth) and financing needs (public debt and pensions). The first two factors are expected to continue exerting downward pressure, whereas upward pressure should come from the huge financing needs. Empirical estimates of the relationship between long-term interest rates and expected borrowing requirements point towards an impact that should be rather limited, all in all
Considered the safest and most liquid assets in the world, US Treasuries are the first choice of investors seeking security. However, the turmoil that hit their market last April, in the wake of the announcement of new US tariffs, revived memories of the dysfunction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Despite the magnitude of the shock, the market's loss of liquidity at the time came as a surprise, given Treasuries' safe-haven status. As a matter of fact, more than the shock per se, this fragility is due to structural factors.This first part of our EcoInsight series on Treasuries analyses how the US administration's fiscal plans threaten to exacerbate this fragility
The number of corporate bankruptcies continued to rise in the first quarter of 2025. However, the momentum slowed, and the increase was uneven. Record highs were broken in the United Kingdom, where a slight decline was nevertheless observed. In contrast, the increase remains much more limited in Italy and Germany, where it continues. In France, the figures are high, but the increase has slowed. In terms of business sectors, services, trade, and construction are the most affected, but to varying degrees depending on the country. In contrast, industry appears to be relatively unscathed. An analysis of bank balance sheets, particularly in France, puts the impact of bankruptcies into perspective
Despite the slowdown in inflation and the increase in household purchasing power (measured by real gross disposable income), private consumption in the Eurozone remains weak compared to the pre-Covid period. This sluggishness can be explained by the gap between harmonised inflation and households' perception of price trends. Recent developments in inflation and households' opinions on past price trends show a more marked divergence than before. Since early 2025, the associated opinion balances have not moderated much. This reflects the persistence of inflation in households' perceptions despite the observed slowdown. Households probably still have in mind (at least in part) the cumulative increase over the entire inflationary episode, rather than that over the last 12 months.
Non-performing loan (NPL) ratios of non-financial corporations declined in most EU/EEA banking systems between 2019 and 2024. On average, the ratio fell significantly to 3.38% in Q4 2024 (-2.4 percentage points since Q1 2019). Only the German, Austrian and Luxembourg banking systems recorded an increase, but they started from a level significantly below the EU/EEA average NPL ratio.
