BIS Quarterly Review, September 2021

Risky asset and sovereign bond markets seemed to send mixed signals during the period under review.

This Special Feature finds that in a regime of low and stable inflation, sector-specific price changes account for most of the fluctuations in consumer price indices. 

 This Special Feature analyses that the rapid rise in equity funding for financial technology (fintech) firms. 

This Special Feature reports that policy measures that were implemented in response to the pandemic have effectively supported lending by enhancing banks' balance-sheet capacity and creating incentives for banks to use it. 

This Special Feature finds that regulatory arbitrage, financial liberalisation and financial innovation drove a multi-decade expansion of international banking, which peaked at over 60% of world GDP before the Great Financial Crisis.