DNBulletin

Overview

61-75 from 296 results
  • DNBulletin: Cash or electronic payments? The influence of socio-psychological factors
    10 November 2016 - Theme: Payments
    Consumers' payment behaviour is strongly driven by socio-psychological factors. An individual's emotions, attitude and perception of appropriate behaviour determine how they intend to make payments. In addition to intentions, habits also play a significant role in the way consumers actually pay at the till.
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  • DNBulletin: Income standards for mortgages not more restrictive than before the crisis
    20 October 2016 - Theme: Economy
    Income standards for residential mortgages have been tightened since the crisis. However, thanks to lower interest rates and modest income growth households are still able to fund the same home they could afford in 2008. Moreover, they can now borrow even more than before the crisis, with house prices being on average more than 12% lower than the 2008 peak prices.
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  • Price stability: why should inflation be above zero?
    28 September 2016 - Theme: Economy
    Central banks aim to safeguard price stability, typically referring to an inflation rate of around 2%. They strive for moderately positive inflation for various reasons.
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  • Adapting to lower bank profitability
    27 September 2016 - Theme: Financial sector
    Banks are posting lower profits than before the crisis, so double-digit returns are no longer obvious. This is due in part to stricter prudential regulations, which have made banks safer. Lower risk is consistent with lower returns. Banks could mitigate lower profitability by cutting costs.
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  • Major differences in flexibilisation of labour relations between professions
    12 September 2016 - Theme: Economy
    The Dutch labour market has become increasingly more flexible in recent years. However, this has not occurred to the same extent across all professions. In the last ten years, certain professions have seen a major shift away from permanent contracts towards flexible labour, although there are also professions where both forms of employment have increased.
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  • DNBulletin: Dutch pension system needs major overhaul
    21 June 2016 - Theme: Pensions
    Personal pension accounts and life-cycle investment policies are indispensable building blocks for a future-proof pension system. This is necessary to prevent intergenerational debates about entitlements and to avoid deficits being passed on to future generations. Moreover, it will reduce the likelihood of pensioners facing benefit curtailments and offer young people the prospect of higher expected future benefits.
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  • Target2 imbalances reflect QE and persistent fragmentation within the euro area
    16 June 2016 - Theme: Payments
    Net payment flows within the European interbank payment system, the so-called Target2 imbalances, have risen significantly for the second time in the past four years. The rising imbalances reflect the liquidity injections under the European Central Bank’s (ECB) quantitative easing program (QE) against the backdrop of persistent fragmentation and risk perceptions within the euro area. This supply-driven development differs from the increase in Target2 imbalances during the European debt crisis, which reflected demand-driven liquidity injections stemming from higher risk perceptions.
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  • DNBulletin: DNB committed to adoption of more realistic UFR for insurers
    18 May 2016 - Theme: Insurers
    The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) is holding a consultation about the determination of the ultimate forward rate (UFR) for insurers, the calculation method for long-term liabilities. DNB is a member of EIOPA and is committed to the adoption of a method that better fits the economic reality, in line with the Dutch UFR method for pension funds.
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  • Milestone: Dutch debit card payments overtake cash
    17 May 2016 - Theme: Payments
    In 2015 Dutch consumers for the first time made more payments with debit cards than with cash. At stores, petrol stations, bars, restaurants, hotels and other establishments, consumers settled 50% of all payments with debit cards, 49.5% with cash and 0.5% with credit cards. The data was revealed in a joint study by the Dutch Payments Association and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) into the use of cash and debit cards in the Netherlands in 2015.
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  • DNBulletin: Alternative labour income share currently relatively low
    28 April 2016 - Theme: Economy
    The usual method to include the labour income of self-employed persons in the labour income share (or LIS, a measure for labour compensation as a share of value added) leads to an upward distortion of this measure. This distortion has increased since the financial crisis. An alternative LIS method uses the mixed income of self-employed persons as a basis for determining their labour income. The alternative LIS is currently below its long-term average, while the regular LIS is above its long-term average.
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  • DNBulletin: Lower unemployment requires higher economic growth
    7 April 2016 - Theme: Economy
    Unemployment in the Netherlands is falling once again, but at a slower pace than usual. The country’s economic growth is only just sufficient for the unemployment rate to decline. Okun’s law, formulated in 1962, evidently still applies.
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  • DNBulletin: Contactless payment will soon be available everywhere in Europe
    22 March 2016 - Theme: Payments
    Most Dutch consumers by now have debit cards that enable contactless payments. More and more payment terminals in the Netherlands accept contactless payments, and the number of these payments is growing rapidly. Elsewhere in Europe the use of contactless payment is also growing, but this does not mean that everywhere cross-border contactless payment has already been enabled.
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  • DNBulletin: Low oil prices are a small short-term plus for the Dutch economy
    17 March 2016 - Theme: Economy
    Oil prices have plunged in the past 18 months, from USD 114 per barrel of Brent oil in June 2014 to USD 40 per barrel in early March 2016. Oil prices are currently highly volatile and there is a chance that they will remain relatively low also in the medium term. Lower oil prices will have a modestly positive effect on economic growth in the Netherlands in the short term. In the long term, however, prolonged low oil prices will dampen the investments that are necessary to achieve the country's climate ambitions.
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  • DNBulletin: Time for transition: towards a carbon-neutral economy
    4 March 2016 - Theme: Economy
    The Paris climate change agreement has shifted the question from whether there will be a transition towards carbon-neutral energy systems to how this transition should be brought about. DNB regards the energy transition as one of the economy’s key long-term challenges. Although there are still many uncertainties, and opinions about the path to be pursued differ widely, the general consensus is that inaction is no longer an option. In an exploratory study on the transition to a carbon-neutral economy published today, DNB therefore advocates a long-term policy ensuring a timely and controlled transition.
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  • DNBulletin: More slack in labour market than unemployment suggests
    25 February 2016 - Theme: Economy
    Unemployment less significant as indicator of labour market tension. In addition to the unemployed, one million workers want to work more hours. There are still half a million Dutch people who do not participate in the labour market but who do want to.   This underutilised labour force may exert downward pressure on wage growth.
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