Many countries entered the pandemic with elevated debt levels. Our new update of the IMF’s Global Debt Database shows that global debt—public plus private—reached $197 trillion in 2019, up by $9 trillion from the previous year. This substantial debt created challenges for countries that faced a debt surge in 2020, as economic activity collapsed and governments acted swiftly to provide support during the pandemic. Higher debt can potentially reduce the ability of governments to react to the COVID-19 crisis. Our data show that...

Interview with Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, conducted by Klemens Kindermann on 29 January 2021 and published on 31 January 2021 | Perhaps a question of general interest to start off with: how is the ECB operating during the coronavirus pandemic? Is everyone working from home? The ECB put some comprehensive measures in place very early on. And this means that the vast majority of our people have been working from home for many months now....

Interview with Philip R. Lane, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, conducted by Markus Zydra on 26 January and published on 1 February 2021 as a shortened version in Süddeutsche Zeitung | Mr Lane, the ECB aspires to be closer to the people. Distributing helicopter money would be a good way to go about that. Why does the ECB prefer to channel its support to banks rather than directly to citizens? Is this a taboo topic? Of course we...

Following the renewed request from the European Commission on 27 January 2021, pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has agreed to publish the redacted contract signed between the two parties on 27 August 2020. The Commission welcomes the company's commitment towards more transparency in its participation in the rollout of the EU Vaccines Strategy. Transparency and accountability are important to help build the trust of European citizens and to make sure that they can rely on the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines purchased at the...

Recently, some of our users have been unable to complete their fee payments with credit/debit cards due to non-compliance with the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements. To avoid this situation, we recommend that users contact their bank to ensure that their credit/debit cards meet the requirements to complete secure payments. The SCA is a requirement of the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) within the European Economic Area. It is an authentication process that validates the identity of the user of a payment service or...

In an effort to ensure timely access to COVID-19 vaccines for all EU citizens and to tackle the current lack of transparency of vaccine exports outside the EU, the Commission has today put in place a measure requiring that such exports are subject to an authorisation by Member States. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said: “The pandemic is having devastating effects in Europe and all around the world. Protecting the health of our citizens remains our utmost priority, and...

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, today launches a public consultation on the revision of the Delegated Regulation regarding fees charged to CRAs. The consultation paper contains proposals which ensure that the supervisory fees charged to credit rating agencies (CRAs) reflect the costs of registration, certification and on-going supervision whilst remaining proportionate to CRAs’ turnover. ESMA’s main proposals are to charge: A single registration fee of €45,000; Annual supervisory fees of €20,000 to registered CRAs with annual revenues of between...

Speech by Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the LSE conference on “Financial Cycles, Risk, Macroeconomic Causes and Consequences” | Frankfurt am Main, 28 January 2021 | One year after the first cases were reported in Europe, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to take a tragic human toll and to pose enormous challenges to workers, firms, the financial system and policymakers in the euro area. Without the forceful responses of fiscal, monetary and prudential authorities the...