Researchers have documented that the Federal Reserve is not unique in its tendency to adjust the policy rate in a long sequence of steps in one direction: Central banks in most other industrial countries generally behave in a similar manner (Lowe and Ellis, 1998; Goodhart, 1999; Srour, 2001).
Moreover, there is a shift to more market-based finance in the euro area, a trend that is likely to continue under the Capital Markets Union initiative. While still small in overall terms, there is a growing role for so-called shadow banking – asset managers, pension funds, money market funds and the like – in providing financing to the real economy.