The Danish Payments Council has surveyed the social costs of payments in Denmark. The social costs of payments between households and businesses have almost halved in seven years. No methods of payment have become more expensive, neither in physical nor in non-physical trade , and Danish households have access to several methods of payment with low social costs. The aggregate social costs for all types of payment were kr. 15.6 billion in 2016.

The Danish economy is now experiencing one of the longest periods of continuous growth. The upswing has been healthier and more balanced than it was in the mid-2000s, where the economy overheated. Although labour market pressures currently exist, they are not as strong as then. The economy may continue to expand without any imbalances, but experience also shows that it can overheat suddenly and violently.

The boom in the Danish economy continues, with robust growth and rising employment. Average growth in real GDP in 2017-18 is forecast at 1.8 per cent, with similar levels the next two years. Labour market pressures are mounting, and wage growth has accelerated a little. There is room for this in the economy. In good times it is important to prepare for the period after a cyclical reversal. Fiscal policy should contribute to a continually balanced upswing and should not stimulate demand further. Dampening of growth towards the end of the boom does not call for special economic policy measures.

The krone has been stable, and it is the longest period without interventions in the currency market since adopting the fixed exchange rate regime in 1982. The ECB continues to normalise its monetary policy and expects to end net purchases of bonds after December 2018. In recent years, Danish households have shifted to loans with lower interest rate risk and loans with amortisation. This makes their disposable income less sensitive to interest rate changes.

Housing and equity prices have increased significantly in recent years, while interest rates are exceptionally low. Based on a structural vector autoregressive model, these factors, combined with credit growth, are overall estimated to have contributed 0.3-0.5 percentage points per year to year-on-year GDP growth since 2016. In recent years, the contribution has been at its highest level since prior to the financial crisis in 2008. Financial conditions are expected to continue to stimulate economic growth during the 2018-20 forecast period.

The Danish labour market is faced with mounting capacity pressures, but is still not showing signs of overheating. The impression, based on a broad range of indicators, is one of balanced labour market developments so far during the upswing. Viewed in isolation, a change in the demographics of the working age population has reduced the labour supply since 2008. This emphasises the need for foreign labour to support the labour demand of the upswing.

Most of the core financial sector participants report that their levels of cyber resilience have been raised compared to 2016. A few core participants have not improved their level. That is one of the findings of a questionnaire survey conducted by Danmarks Nationalbank.

Danmarks Nationalbank's calculations show that the mortgage banks' total funding need in periods of diving house prices will be smaller with an MREL than without an MREL. This is because an MREL will increase the mortgage banks' funding need in normal times, thereby ensuring that they are better prepared for periods of falling house prices and an increasing top-up collateral requirement. This will make the funding needs of the mortgage banks less sensitive to house price fluctuations.

Nominal wage growth has been low since 2010, albeit with decent real wage growth in recent years. This also applies to Denmark’s most important export markets, e.g. Germany. A lower average replacement ratio for unemployment benefits and weak inflation have been contributing to low nominal wage growth in Denmark since 2013.

Danmarks Nationalbank’s 200-year history has been characterised by long periods of a robust economy, but also by dramatic episodes during which the stability of prices, payment systems and the financial sector have been jeopardised. This anniversary book provides a brief overview of Danmarks Nationalbank’s 200-year history, stressing the elements that are particularly relevant for today’s readers.

Danmarks Nationalbank is the central bank of Denmark. It was established 200 year ago. In this booklet you can read more about the main objectives of Danmarks Nationalbank. Back in 1818, it was a series of dramatic events that led to the establishment of Danmarks Nationalbank. The Napoleonic wars and the galloping inflation made it imperative to secure the currency system and place the responsibility for issuing banknotes with an independent institution. Today, Danmarks Nationalbank's tasks are mainly to ensure trust in the systems that enable the transfer of money between people. It is to oversee the stability of the financial sector and ensure stable prices via the fixed exchange rate policy. With the ultimate objective of ensuring a robust Danish economy.

Citizens' bank deposits have increased substantially since 2011, currently accounting for 60 per cent of GDP. This is a natural development in view of the growth of the Danish economy and the narrower spread between bond yields and bank deposit rates. This means that citizens suffer a small interest rate loss only by holding deposits with banks at low or zero interest rates rather than holding bonds.

Capital requirements increase the banks' ability to absorb losses, thereby contributing to the robustness of the banking system. The first part of the analysis looks at the significance of equity capital to banks' weighted funding costs and their ability to meet increased capital requirements. The second part of the analysis describes three new requirements for the banks' composition of liabilities: the countercyclical capital buffer, the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities, and the completion of Basel III.

The banks should have larger buffers so that they are more resilient in an economic crisis, which typically leads to losses on lending. That is why the banks have been met by stricter capital requirements since the financial crisis. From time to time it has been indicated that higher capital requirements will cost the banks an equivalent sum. That is not correct, Danmarks Nationalbank points out.

The dissertation constitutes three empirical studies on how household savings behaviour is affected by pension and mortgage systems. Specifically, the thesis investigates the effects of tax incentives for saving in retirement accounts, housing wealth effects on home equity extraction, and early withdrawals from pension schemes.

The targets for sales of government bonds and the outstanding volume of T-bills are maintained at kr. 65 billion and kr. 30 billion, respectively, in the 2nd half of 2018. The expected average sale of government bonds per auction is around kr. 2.5 billion at market value. The on-the-run issues will remain unchanged and focus will be on issuance in the 2-year and 10-year nominal bonds.

The collateralized loan obligation, CLO, market withstood the recent financial crisis with minimal losses compared to other structured asset-backed securities. We investigate one unique aspect of CLOs – that the CLO manager actively maintains the collateral pool by selling and purchasing loans. We find that more active CLOs trade at better prices, provide higher returns to equity investors, and maintain lower collateral portfolio default rates than less active CLOs.

The times are good for the financial sector and the risk appetite is high. Credit standards are under pressure and have been eased for quite a while. Especially the medium-sized banks have been easing credit standards and have started gaining market shares. It is essential that the competitive pressure does not ultimately affect the risk appetite of the banking system overall. This development underscores the importance of having well-capitalised banks and of building up the countercyclical capital buffer so that the institutions have funds to mitigate the effects when the economy reverses.

The favourable developments in the financial sector continue, and the banks have significant capacity to increase lending. Combined with limited growth in demand for loans, this has intensified the banks’ competition for customers. This means that there is a basis for the banks to lower their credit quality and ease credit conditions.

Danmarks Nationalbank's semiannual stress test of the banking sector shows that the largest banks generally satisfy their buffer requirements in a severe recession scenario. The mortgage banking sector is for the first time included in the stress test, which now focuses on the banks' capital adequacy at the group level.

Can monetary stimulus boost corporate investment? We answer this question by studying ECB's 2011-2012 Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (LTROs). While we find that the LTROs helped to decelerate the declined in Eurozone firms' investment our results also show that banks' use of LTRO funds is negatively associated with their clients' investment. Overall, the paper highlights the difficulty of boosting investment by injecting liquidity into the banking system.

Danmarks Nationalbank oversees payment and settlement systems in Denmark in order to promote a safe and efficient financial infrastructure. Danmarks Nationalbank has performed an assessment of whether the Danish retail payment systems observe international standards for payment systems. The assessment shows that the systems extensively observe the security and efficiency requirements. Nevertheless, Danmarks Nationalbank recommends improvements in a number of areas.

This report presents the conclusions of Danmarks Nationalbank's oversight in 2017 of the core payment and settlement systems in Denmark and the most important payment solutions. The core systems and solutions extensively comply with international standards for efficiency and security, though there is still room for improvement. Cyber risks and risks arising from interdependencies remain a focus of Danmarks Nationalbank's oversight. Not all systems have made the same headway in the work regarding cyber security. This work is also carried out at sector level.

This analysis takes a closer look at how market fluctuations affect the value of the Danes' foreign assets and liabilities. There may be large capital gains or losses in the short term, but over a longer period of time accumulated gains and losses are close to zero. It is especially fluctuations in the dollar price, as well as Danish and international stock prices, which give capital gains or losses.

The Danish economy is well prepared for the boom that it is now entering. The economy may continue to expand without any imbalances, but experience also shows that it can overheat suddenly and violently.

The upswing continued in the 2nd half of 2017 and the Danish economy has entered a boom phase with mounting pressures on the labour market. The expansion has been balanced so far, partly supported by previous reforms that have increased the supply of labour. Growth in GDP is forecast at 1.9 per cent this year and slightly less in the next two years. The economy is well prepared for the boom, which may develop without the build-up of imbalances, but experience shows that the economy can overheat suddenly and violently. The government should be prepared to introduce preventive fiscal tightening with a view to dampening growth in demand if there are signs of overheating.

The Danish krone has been stable, on the strong side of the central rate vis-à-vis the euro. Danmarks Nationalbank has not intervened in the foreign exchange market in the past eleven months up to the end of February. Government bond yields in Denmark increased towards the end of 2017 and at the beginning of 2018. Companies and households increased their borrowing at a stable, but subdued, rate.

Danmarks Nationalbank's accounts for 2017 show a loss of kr. 254 million, compared with a profit of kr. 3,928 million in 2016. Much of the loss is attributable to the fact that a large part of the foreign exchange reserve earns negative interest.

In this paper I study the business cycle dynamics of the maturity structure of the debt of U.S. non-financial firms. To account for the documented facts, I construct a quantitative dynamic equilibrium model in which firms optimally choose their debt maturity structure. The model can match stylized facts about the level and dynamics of the maturity structure of debt, both in the aggregate and along the firm size distribution.

The analysis examines how globalisation can affect Denmark's current account. Globalisation implies that goods sold abroad by Danish firms to an increasing extent are completely or partially produced abroad. This complicates the interpretation of the developments in imports, exports, investment income and GDP, because they can be affected by the location of firms' head office and internal accounting structure.

Denmark's central government debt was 21 per cent of GDP at the end of 2017. This is a decrease from 2016, attributable to a government budget surplus. In 2017, on average, the central government issued bonds at a yield to maturity of 0.2 per cent and a maturity of 7.5 years. Interest costs for the central government debt totalled 0.8 per cent of GDP. The yield spread to Germany narrowed, and liquidity improved further in the market for Danish government bonds in 2017, where the central government introduced a new primary dealer model.

The analysis contributes to the discussion of how high economic growth rates we can expect to see in the future. The analysis shows that on the domestic front the rising average life expectancy in the coming years will curb prosperity growth. However, this development can be countered by reforms which increase labour supply. We conclude that Denmark is well-prepared for the economic challenges entailed by an ageing population because Denmark has built up considerable net foreign assets and the public finances are sustainable.

The paper analyses the effectiveness of fiscal tools at the zero lower bound (ZLB) in a non-linear New Keynesian DSGE model. Although the government spending multiplier increases at the ZLB, its size depends strongly on rational expectations to the liquidity trap length. In light of this finding, market expectations in the beginning of 2009 might indicate that expectations to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act were too optimistic.

The potential benefits of introducing central bank digital currency in Denmark would not match the considerable challenges resulting from such a decision. Danmarks Nationalbank therefore has no plans to introduce central bank digital currency.

The analysis concludes that central bank digital currency would not be an improvement of the existing payment solutions in Denmark. Central bank digital currency would fundamentally change Danmarks Nationalbank’s role in the financial system and make it a direct competitor to the commercial banks. The introduction would also lead to risks of financial instability. The potential benefits of introducing central bank digital currency for households and businesses in Denmark would not match the considerable challenges which this introduction would present. Danmarks Nationalbank therefore has no plans to issue central bank digital currency.

We analyze the costs and benefits of increasing capital requirements for Danish banks. Costs are low if banks suspend dividend payments for two years and if investors' required return falls as banks accumulate new capital. An increase of required capital ratio from its current level reduces the probability of financial crises and the long-lasting output costs associated with these. Based on Danish data and using models for the Danish economy, we thus confirm findings in studies for other economies: The benefits outweigh the social costs of increasing capital ratios.

The target for sales of domestic government bonds and T-bills in 2018 is kr. 65 billion and kr. 30 billion, respectively. This is unchanged from 2017. In 2018, a new index-linked bond will be opened, maturing in 2030. The focus will be on issuance in the existing 2-year and 10-year nominal bonds and in the new index-linked bond.

The central government's primary dealer model with enhanced requirements and payments has strengthened the market for Danish government securities. That is the background for maintaining the model with payments in 2018. The model has contributed to a more liquid market for government securities and hence to lower financing costs for the central government. Liquidity has been increased through narrower bid-ask spreads and a higher number of banks actively trading Danish government securities.

This analysis supports Danmarks Nationalbank's recommendation that the principles for resolution of SIFI groups should be set to resolve the SIFIs as single entities in group strategies. The analysis also examines what the strategy means in relation to the special act on mortgage banks and the setting of requirements for eligible liabilities in the systemically important groups.

When the 2018 Finance Act has been adopted, the central government will buy bonds to finance social housing. The central government expects to purchase bonds for kr. 42.5 billion in 2018. The bond purchases will be financed by issuance of government securities or by drawing on the central government's account. This results in the cheapest possible financing of social housing and the largest saving for the central government.

Danes prefer digital payment solutions to cash. Digital payment solutions are chosen by the youngest Danes in particular, and many young Danes carry little or no cash. Thus, many Danes live more or less without using cash, and even more Danes are expected to live without using cash in the future. However, Denmark is not heading for a cashless society. Citizens who wish to hold cash will still have the option to do so in the future.

Credit institutions are to an increasing extent using Contingent Convertible Bonds, CoCos, to meet part of their capital requirements. This paper provides a thorough introduction to CoCos – the product, its use in capital regulation, the market and the specific risks faced by investors. A variety of models illustrate how the complexity of CoCos makes them difficult to use when assessing the soundness of the issuer; in addition to this, the many CoCo specific risks make it questionable whether the cost of CoCos constitutes a lower bound for the cost of equity.

The profits of banks and mortgage banks are increasing. This has contributed to a boost in optimism in the financial sector and an increase in the institutions' risk appetite, which is reflected in easing of credit standards. Several credit institutions have increased lending to cyclical industries. The aggregate trend in bank lending in combination with other factors indicates that the risks are building up in the financial system. Danmarks Nationalbank assesses that the conditions for activating the countercyclical capital buffer are in place.

There is a sentiment of optimism in the financial sector. Profits of the credit institutions are rising, and a considerable lending capacity has been built up. This increases credit institutions’ risk appetite, which is reflected in easing of credit standards. Several credit institutions are increasing lending to cyclical industries and to vulnerable households with high debt ratios. At the same time, rising house prices mean that credit growth may take off suddenly.

Danmarks Nationalbank's semiannual stress test of the banking sector shows that the largest banks are close to, and in some cases tap into, their buffer requirements in a severe recession scenario. The stress test focuses on market risk and the losses banks suffer due to falling stock prices, changes in interest rates and increasing credit spreads.

Denmark has had a current account surplus for almost 27 consecutive years. In recent years, the high current account surplus reflects consolidation among households and firms in the wake of the financial crisis. As concluded by Danmarks Nationalbank in an analysis, a part of the extraordinarily high surplus is assessed to be temporary.

It appears from the analysis that the very high current account surplus is temporary. The surplus has been extraordinarily high since 2010 – also in comparison to the current business cycle. Corporations' net lending rose sharply in the wake of the financial crisis. Today the surplus mainly reflects high household savings. They save in order to reduce their debt. As consumption and investment increase, the current account surplus will be reduced.

The analysis describes how banks from all over the world safely and efficiently send Danish krone payments to each other via Danmarks Nationalbank's payment system, Kronos. Most Danish banks have an account at Danmarks Nationalbank and participate directly in Kronos, while many foreign banks participate indirectly through an account holder. It is important that the individual bank considers the risks that both direct and indirect participation entails.

In this paper, we investigate the geographical connection of the housing market. We estimate a regional model of single-family house prices and show that regions are connected via the relative prices, giving rise to a ripple effect – when house prices increase in one area, part of the housing demand is shifted to other areas. At the same time, we find that house prices are more sensitive to the development of fundamental factors, such as income and interest rates in Copenhagen, and that the ripple effect is stronger from Copenhagen to the rest of Denmark than in the opposite direction.

This paper addresses three types of geographical decoupling in foreign direct investment (FDI), i.e., challenges when using traditional FDI data as a proxy for real economic integration between economies: (i) large bilateral asymmetries between inward and outward FDI, (ii) the role of special purpose entities (SPEs), and (iii) the effect of moving from immediate counterpart economy to ultimate investing economy (UIE). A unique global FDI network is estimated, where SPEs are removed and FDI positions are broken down by the UIE.