Video

Who's paying for bank bailouts?

Publishing date
27 March 2014
Authors
Nicolas Véron

Who has paid for bank bailouts? Nicolas Véron, Senior Fellow at Bruegel, interviews Hans-Joachim Dübel, prominent economist and founder of Finpolconsult, on the details surrounding bailout programmes. In addition to tackling developments in Cyprus or Spain, Dübel analyses the turn of events since the crisis began, focusing on the role of the European Central Bank: “The ECB can’t change a lot, because it is trapped in its role as secure creditor of banks, basically as the sugar daddy of banks, providing low interest rates,” he explains.

Dübel also discusses the efficiency of the Single Regulatory Mechanism (SRM). “We would be very well advised in Europe to introduce checks and balances. We are doing this to some degree with the SRM, but in my view the SRM is still not powerful enough to take on a potential fight with the ECB,” he points out.

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