What do you do when an economy is struggling? If you’re a policymaker, a politician, or a central banker, you develop a stimulus package. That’s the term we examine in today’s episode. It’s the inside story of one of the biggest stimulus packages in history, to find out how it was set up, how it worked and what kind of results it got. The inside story of the European Fund for Strategic Investments.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When we speak of the virtual world and storing things in ‘the cloud’, we seldom stop to realize that our digital climate impact is not virtual at all Many people see digitalisation as this magical pixie dust that Tinker Bell sprinkles on old industries to make them all environmentally friendly. Stop printing newspapers and get your news online and suddenly your environmental footprint is down to zero, right? Wrong. In this episode of the Monster Under the Bed podcast we...

In schools and in the workplace disability training makes for better inclusion—and lets everyone draw on the strengths of people who overcame difficulties most of us never faced Is disability a state of mind? According to Bebe Vio, the young Italian Paralympic champion, you don’t need arms and legs to reach your goals. However, disability and diversity can come in many different forms—they can even be invisible. How can you help create an inclusive society? In this episode of the Monster...

In this episode of Monster Under the Bed, we bust the idea that the EU is something to scare people with, and the myth that it costs us too much In the last few years, the EU budget has become a major topic of public discourse – whether in the media, or in our neighbourhood cafes. Something that once felt so remote has gone mainstream. A lot of that is due to Brexit, and a lot of the conversations have had to do with specifically how much the European Union costs us, and our countries. So...

In this episode of Monster Under the Bed, we bust the ‘you are what you know’ education myth and discover that, in fact, you are the things you know how to do In the grim Victorian building where I went to school, we learned everything by rote. It worked out okay for me. But the focus at the school my kids attend doesn’t seem to be on cramming knowledge into their heads, and sometimes I wonder if that’s bad for them. So I decided to examine the ideas I had about schooling. Maybe the things...

Here’s why you should be even more scared of cybercrime and the rising cost of cybercrime prevention You probably think that if you have the latest software on your computer and a strong IT department at work, you’re more or less safe from cyberattacks. Boy, are you wrong. This myth is costing businesses a lot of money and causing people a lot of harm in lost data and privacy. You definitely should not rely only on software updates or the IT department to protect you from hackers. This...

Forget the dystopian images of overcrowded, polluting cities. When urban life is well-planned and well-managed it’s better for the environment than country living. We all know the dystopian image of city life—smog, roads jammed with traffic, high prices and noise. Listen to this installment of our myth-busting show to find out: ·        Where did cities come from? What were the instincts that first drove us to live close together? And are these reasons still valid today? ·        Where...

‘Monster Under the Bed’ is a new season of podcasts by the European Investment Bank that tackles myths and prejudices we all have about anything from health care to cybercrime, and from urban planning to education. In this episode we talk about how advances in medicine and squeezed budgets are forcing countries to rethink health care. For most of us, hospitals conjure up some very specific images: nurses and doctors running around, fancy machinery beeping away, somebody yelling “STAT!”...

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A big part of finance (and life) is about trying to figure out what will happen in the future. Will the market go up? Will interest rates drop? Take a look into the future with an exclusive sneak peak at our new podcast Future Europe. 

Why do some companies decide not to sell shares on public exchanges? And who buys private equity? A Dictionary of Finance finds out. We also learn what "love money" is. Private equity is an important market for small start-ups and for projects in developing countries. So A Dictionary of Finance podcast gathered three experts to tell us what kinds of companies sell private equity and who buys private equity. Aglaé Touchard-Le Drian, senior investment officer in the European Investment Bank’s...

From hospitals to schools and toll roads, project finance can be a valuable way to handle risk. Here’s how project finance works. When a company wants to build a wind farm, for example, it might borrow the money from a bank. But that involves risks for the entire company, if the project doesn’t work out. What if the company wants to limit the risk of the project to no more than the investment it makes in the project? This is how project finance works. “At the heart of project finance is risk...

How do banks track possible fraud? Take a look inside bank fraud investigations and forensic accounting. Where you have lots of money, you surely will have people who give in to temptation. That may involve them in fraud. And when you have billions of euros at a bank, the risk of fraud is great. That’s why we devoted the latest episode of A Dictionary of Finance podcast to bank fraud investigations. The European Investment Bank has an entire division devoted to bank fraud investigations. In...

You don’t need a Ph.D to run bank risk models. But it helps. So A Dictionary of Finance got two superterrific scientists to explain. It’s important because bank risk models are central to the assessment of financial risk by banks. We admit that it’s complicated stuff. That’s why we asked two of the most expert experts yet to appear on A Dictionary of Finance podcast to explain it. Eva Ribarits, head of the European Investment Bank’s model development, has a doctorate in mathematics. Olivier...

Find out how macroeconomics works with an overview of Adam Smith and the invisible hand, the Keynesian approach and the Chicago school. Macro (big) is the opposite of micro (small). So macroeconomics is the opposite of microfinance, right? Sorry, things are never that simple in banking. Listen to our episode on microfinance to see what that’s all about. And listen to this episode so you’ll know how macroeconomics works. In fact, you’ll see that, in a way, the main role of macroeconomics is to...

The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) hits a big target today. We mark the delivery of €315 billion in investment through this programme by turning A Dictionary of Finance into an EFSI podcast with Iliyana Tsanova, deputy managing director of EFSI. She lays out the reasoning behind the programme, which was created as part of Europe’s response to the global financial crisis. Administered by the European Investment Bank, EFSI consists of a guarantee from the EU budget and some...

If you want to know how mergers and acquisitions work, you’d best ask a lawyer. Because there are legions of them involved in any M&A deal (as mergers and acquisitions are known). We hear from two lawyers with extensive experience in M&A, as well as other aspects of corporate law and equity financing, about exactly how mergers and acquisitions work. Alexandra Slack, senior legal counsel at the European Investment Fund, and her European Investment Bank colleague Tom Nguyen take us...

Let’s face it, people don’t like bankers. But that’s because they don’t know about social finance. On this week’s episode, we hear about social finance, which tackles social issues such as migration or the integration of prisoners into society. Listen, because it will make you feel warm and fuzzy. The episode also shows you how to get financing for your business through programmes backed by the European Investment Fund.

Matt morphed into a sock-tycoon trying to get a loan from the European Investment Bank, with Allar acting as his not-so-knowledgeable lawyer. Explaining loan terms are Garbiela Barufi, EIB loan officer for corporates in Iberia, and Martin Arnold, head of unit for corporate lending in the region. They help us come to terms with tenor of a loan, grace period, availability period, unsecured loans, senior and subordinated loans, floating and fixed interest rates, EURIBOR, the disgraced LIBOR and...

Circular economy takes the “line” in the linear economy, shortens it, and bends it into a circle. That’s how Liesbet Goovaerts, an engineer in advanced materials at the European Investment Bank (yes, we do have engineers working at the bank, and, yes, we do have an advanced materials division), elegantly explains it. Liesbet is joined on this episode of ‘A Dictionary of Finance’ podcast by Arnold Verbeek, a senior advisor in the Innovation Finance Advisory division of the European...

Imagine you are shopping for a new car—and not just based on the colour. You might consider the number of people it fits (especially if you have kids, despite initially warming to the idea of a convertible coupé), the mileage, the CO2 emissions (if you still want to be admitted to within Paris city limits in a couple of years), how fast it can go, the crash test results, and many other metrics. Turns out there is something similar for banks. When we invited some experts from the European...

We had a chat on ‘A Dictionary of Finance’ podcast with Branimir Berkovic, head of the tax compliance unit, and Sophie Rase, compliance officer in corporate compliance at the European Investment Bank to find out what compliance encompasses in the industry. And we learned that: Compliance ensures the organization follows rules and regulations, set both externally (for example, by lawmakers) and internally (for example, by shareholders). Sophie and Branimir explain that compliance involves...

If you had the option of signing a contract today to buy a scoop of ice cream from me in one month, and to pay 90% of the price of a loaf of bread on that day for it, would you take it? If so, you and I have just entered into the derivatives business. That is, if I understood correctly what Julien Glachon, financial risk management officer in the derivatives division of the European Investment Bank, was telling us on this week’s show of ‘A Dictionary of Finance’. He talks about plain vanilla...

Pay attention, credit risk management newbies: the expected loss equals the probability of default times the exposure at default times the haircut. EIB credit risk management officer Gabriela Manciu explains everything eloquently. The probability of default is perhaps the most difficult to estimate, and often takes the form of a credit rating. This can be done by a bank internally (it has probably been done to you, if you’ve ever taken out a credit card or a mortgage), or publicly by ratings...