Safe Bank

The article underlines the importance of the availability of reliable financial data and information about banks in order to ensure market discipline and to conduct reliable scientific research on banking sector. Therefore, information requirements and regulatory changes, which have taken place in recent years, have been briefly characterized. The availability of financial reports and reports on Capital Adequacy published by Polish banks have been evaluated on the basis of empirical research. While the data availability is quite good in the case of commercial banks (the best in the case of listed banks] and the State bank, in the case of cooperative banks the data availability is very low (as many as every fourth bank – contrary to the regulations – does not provide any current data on its financial condition]. Conclusions from the analysis of the regulations and from the material status are the basis for formulating proposals, the implementation of which should contribute to the strengthening of market discipline and the quality of scientific research on banks.

The article analysed three scenarios for the development of the International Monetary System (IMS) in light of the three theories of money – precious metals as money, theory of hitch and modern monetary theory. The most promising scenario in view of effectiveness of the IMS involves the introduction of a separate global currency based on the contractual monetary unit of the International Monetary Fund, which are the Special Drawing Rights – SDR. The value and the stability of the newly introduced world currency cannot derive from the strength of the monetary authorities of any sovereign country. Its strength, however, could be built upon a double hitch: e.g. from the gold standard, which could be subject to periodic change and the economic parity, which would apply to all national economies by introducing of the valuation of carbon dioxide emission limits.

Macroprudential committees constitute one of the possible institutional models used in conducting macroprudential policy. In the European Union they are as popular as another solution which consists of conferring macroprudential policy on a central bank. Nevertheless, as domestic financial safety net arrangements differ across countries, so do the macroprudential committees. The article presents an in-depth analysis of 12 macroprudential committees functioning in the EU countries. These committees are good examples of cooperation between financial safety net institutions aiming at ensuring stable and safe financial system. These institutions pool their resources, knowledge, expertise and experience from different areas which allows for better identification of threats to financial stability and appropriate reaction. The article identities both advantages and weaknesses of this institutional model.

In the post-crisis era banks’ capital adequacy is established by the Basel III capital standards and, in many jurisdictions, also by supervisory stress tests. For most of the large global banks in the US and Europe, meeting the standard to pass their annual supervisory stress tests is the binding regulatory constraint. The ef????icient use of stress tests requires developing a coherent framework that takes into account how they interact with the existing micro and macroprudential instruments. This paper describes the ways in which supervisory stress tests can supplement the risk-based capital framework of Basel III and how this could be codified with a stress test buffer.

The main thesis of the article is “Households from rural regions, especially the low-income ones, when dealing with financial instability, use mainly informal financial resources”. The main thesis was verified by presenting results of own research concerning dealing with unexpected financial shocks among households, especially low-income ones, from rural regions of Poland. The results show that responders use mostly responsible strategies when facing with a small value financial shocks. In case of the bigger financial shocks the most of them are unable to cover the costs. It means that the access to the adequate financial products may have a great impact on the level of their financial potential. Besides that, the important factor in explaining the way people handle with financial shocks is not the level of income but the financial literacy level and selected financial attitudes.

This paper is aimed at comparing mortgage loans (among other type and level of interest rate) in selected European countries, as well as conducting sensitivity analysis of changes in the value of credit instalments in the situation of rising interest rates. Fixed rate mortgage loans have dominated in many highly developed countries, which were largely financed by long-term bonds and covered bonds. In turn adjustable rate mortgages have mainly dominated in developing countries , primarily financed by customers deposits. The analysis of credit instalments cost has shown that interest rate increase by 1 p.p. could lead to rise of credit instalments by 13,88% and Debt to Income indicator by 6,63 p.p. This is a particular threat to Poland, in which all of newly granted mortgage loans were taken at variable interest rates. A long-term mortgage market based on a fixed interest rate would reduce cumulative risk in the Polish banking sector.