Between 1980 and before the recent crisis, the ratio of financial market debt to liquid assets rose exponentially in the U.S. (and in other financial markets), reflecting in part the greater use of securitized assets to collateralize borrowing. The subsequent crisis has reduced the pool of assets considered acceptable as collateral, resulting in a liquidity shortage. When trying to address this, policy makers will need to consider concepts of liquidity besides the traditional metric of excess bank reserves and do more than merely substitute central bank money for collateral that currently remains highly liquid.

Collateral is one of the building blocks on which the financial markets are constructed. Used for a number of purposes--including trading with central counterparties (CCPs), secured funding with market counterparties and central banks, OTC derivatives margining and settlement--the role of effective collateral management in monetizing assets has never been more important.

Who are the agents of financial regulation? Is good (or bad) financial governance merely the work of legislators and regulators? Here Annelise Riles argues that financial governance is made not just through top-down laws and policies but also through the daily use of mundane legal techniques such as collateral by a variety of secondary agents, from legal technicians and retail investors to financiers and academics and even computerized trading programs. Drawing upon her ten years of ethnographic fieldwork in the Japanese derivatives market, Riles explores the uses of collateral in the financial markets as a regulatory device for stabilizing market transactions. How collateral operates, Riles suggests, is paradigmatic of a class of low-profile, mundane, but indispensable activities and practices that are all too often ignored as we think about how markets should work and be governed. Riles seeks to democratize our understanding of legal techniques, and demonstrate how these day-to-day private actions can be reformed to produce more effective forms of market regulation.

The first book-length study of the importance of collateral frameworks in monetary policy, focusing on the Eurozone and euro crisis.

This is the first book to analyse and draw together all of the property law and regulatory and contractual issues relevant to financial collateral transactions. Collateralized finance transactions played a major role in the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the near-failure of AIG during the early months of the global financial crisis, and are being increasingly recognised as being integral to the stability of the global financial system. The book provides a detailed legal analysis of the types of transactions which make up collateralised financing transactions and examines them in their commercial context. Recognising that financial collateral transactions are often global in nature the book covers the legal position in the UK, US, and the EU with specific relevance to practice in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. There is a chapter on the relevant private international law issues including conflicts of laws and forum. The book opens with an explanation of how financial collateral transactions are construed, including the relevant standard contract forms. The following chapters discuss the major legal issues and practical considerations, as well as a number of specialist concepts such as safe harbours, 'minimum floors' and securities custody. This new work brings together consideration of the European Securities Financing Regulation, the Collateral Directive, and relevant parts of the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive.

This paper focuses on how changes in financial plumbing of the markets may impact the monetary policy options as central banks contemplate lift off from zero lower bound (ZLB). Under the proposed regulations, banks will face leverage ratio constraints. As a result of quantitative easing (QE), banks want balance sheet “space” for financial intermediation/ non-depository activities. At the same time, regulatory changes are boosting demand for high quality liquid assets. The paper also discusses the role of repo markets and the importance of collateral velocity and the need to avoid wedges between repo and monetary policy rates when leaving ZLB.

Based on detailed research and consultation with experts, including the Bank of England, this book reviews theoretical and historical debates on the nature of money and banking and explains the role of the central bank, the Government and the European Union. Following a sell out first edition and reprint, this second edition includes new sections on Libor and quantitative easing in the UK and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.