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Banks as buyers of last resort for government bonds?

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  • Gros, Daniel

Abstract

A key remaining issue for the completion of the Banking Union is the concentrated exposure of banks in many countries to their own sovereign. This paper examines the belief that banks should be allowed to buy large amounts of their own sovereign in the expectation that they can stabilise the market in a crisis and argues that it is mistaken. The author cites two reasons for this conclusion: banks are only intermediaries for private savings, and banks have a higher cost of funding than do their sovereign. The overall conclusion is that governments should make it more attractive for households (and other real money investors) to hold government debt directly.

Suggested Citation

  • Gros, Daniel, 2017. "Banks as buyers of last resort for government bonds?," CEPS Papers 13226, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:eps:cepswp:13226
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Carlo Altavilla & Marco Pagano & Saverio Simonelli, 2017. "Bank Exposures and Sovereign Stress Transmission," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 21(6), pages 2103-2139.
    2. Acharya, Viral V. & Steffen, Sascha, 2015. "The “greatest” carry trade ever? Understanding eurozone bank risks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 215-236.
    3. Massimiliano Affinito & Giorgio Albareto & Raffaele Santioni, 2016. "Purchases of sovereign debt securities by Italian banks during the crisis: the role of balance-sheet conditions," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 330, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
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    1. Frey, Rainer & Weth, Mark Andreas, 2019. "Banks' holdings of risky sovereign bonds in the absence of the nexus: Yield seeking with central bank funding or de-risking?," VfS Annual Conference 2019 (Leipzig): 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Democracy and Market Economy 203537, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    2. Antonija Buljan & Milan Deskar-Skrbic & Mirna Dumicic, 2020. "What drives banks’ appetite for sovereign debt in CEE countries?," Public Sector Economics, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 44(2), pages 179-201.
    3. Fiordelisi, Franco & Girardone, Claudia & Minnucci, Federica & Ricci, Ornella, 2020. "On the nexus between sovereign risk and banking crises," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    4. Arbogast, Tobias, 2020. "Who are these bond vigilantes anyway? The political economy of sovereign debt ownership in the eurozone," MPIfG Discussion Paper 20/2, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    5. Iustina Alina Boitan & Kamilla Marchewka-Bartkowiak, 2021. "The Sovereign-Bank Nexus in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak—Evidence from EU Member States," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-21, May.

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