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 . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 16, 2020•24 min
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 learn: · What is the clim...
Jan 07, 2020•23 min•Season 2Ep. 7
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 Under ...
Dec 31, 2019•19 min•Season 2Ep. 6
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 we dec...
Dec 24, 2019•26 min•Season 2Ep. 5
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 I tho...
Dec 17, 2019•20 min•Season 2Ep. 4
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 episode o...
Dec 10, 2019•20 min•Season 2Ep. 3
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 did cities mess up? (Wh...
Dec 03, 2019•28 min•Season 2Ep. 2
‘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!” While hos...
Nov 26, 2019•25 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Listen to our new podcast - Monster Under the Bed ! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 23, 2019•28 min
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 15, 2019•19 min•Season 1Ep. 61
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 26, 2018•33 min•Season 1Ep. 60
From hospitals to schools and toll roads, project finance can be a valuable way to handle risk. Here’s how project finance works. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 19, 2018•19 min•Season 1Ep. 59
How do banks track possible fraud? Take a look inside bank fraud investigations and forensic accounting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 12, 2018•27 min•Season 1Ep. 58
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 05, 2018•28 min•Season 1Ep. 57
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 si...
Jul 29, 2018•25 min•Season 1Ep. 56
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 billio...
Jul 18, 2018•26 min•Season 1Ep. 55
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 throug...
Jul 15, 2018•29 min•Season 1Ep. 54
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 of ‘ A Dictionary of Finance ’ 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 . If you think you might need a microfinance lo...
Jul 08, 2018•33 min•Season 1Ep. 53
It took us 50-plus episodes of ‘A Dictionary of Finance’ podcast to realize we haven’t covered some of the very basics: terminology surrounding loans, our bread and butter. So, 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 the 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 t...
Jun 30, 2018•27 min•Season 1Ep. 52
Circular economy is an economic system which contrasts with the linear economy. In the linear economy, companies extract natural resources, make something out of them, pass the product on to consumers for use, only for the product eventually to be discarded. In the circular economy, producers and consumers avoid waste and extracting new natural resources. Instead, they reuse/repair products. Circular economy takes the “line” in the linear economy, shortens it, and bends it into a circle. That’s ...
Jun 24, 2018•27 min•Season 1Ep. 51
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 Investm...
Jun 17, 2018•28 min•Season 1Ep. 50
In preparing this podcast which aims to answer the question what is banking compliance, we naturally engaged in some deep research on the subject. So, on Wikipedia we discovered that in mechanical science compliance is the opposite of stiffness, i.e. flexibility, measured in metres per newton. Which may sound confusing, because in finance and banking, compliance is not well known for its flexibility. We had a chat on ‘ A Dictionary of Finance ’ podcast with Branimir Berkovic, head of the tax com...
Jun 10, 2018•32 min•Season 1Ep. 49
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 ...
Jun 03, 2018•24 min•Season 1Ep. 48
Pay attention, credit risk management newbies: the expected loss equals the probability of default times the exposure at default times the haircut. Now you may say: “What?!” But that’s only because you haven’t listened to this week’s episode of the European Investment Bank ’s podcast ‘ A Dictionary of Finance ’. In it, EIB credit risk management officer Gabriela Manciu explains everything eloquently: The probability of default , meaning the chance of the borrower going bust X Exposure at default...
May 27, 2018•29 min•Season 1Ep. 47
If your familiarity with Alexander Hamilton ends with the musical, you may want to go back to last week’s episode of ‘ A Dictionary of Finance ’. In it, the first part of our Story of the Euro, Aldo Romani, managerial advisor in the euro division of our capital markets directorate, described his recipe for a common currency: common debt. Without common debt, one could argue, if one state using a single currency starts having difficulty servicing its debt, the currency takes a hit, possibly dragg...
May 20, 2018•21 min•Season 1Ep. 46
337 million people can’t be wrong, right? That’s how many people live in countries that have adopted the euro as their currency. But the history of the euro is rather short—so far. And as our guests this week, senior economist in the economic studies division at the European Investment Bank Laurent Maurin and Aldo Romani, managerial advisor in the euro divison of our capital markets directorate point out, it took the dollar a lot longer to become the well established, liquid, and stable currency...
May 13, 2018•28 min•Season 1Ep. 45
If there's one thing Mideast countries need, it's potable water. Thanks to a series of technical assistancestudies managed by the European Investment Bank , the Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline will be a vital solution to the water crisis.Technical assistance brought the pipeline to this advanced stage. Water engineer Harald Schölzel and water economist Edouard Pérard came on A Dictionary of Finance podcast to explain how technical assistance works in the context of a major development project like Red...
May 06, 2018•25 min•Season 1Ep. 44
IRR (Internal rate of return) indicates the comparative profitability of a possible investment by taking into account all outgoing and incoming cash flows from an investment over the investment period. IRR is one of the most common metrics by which investors judge funds. So naturally your hosts on ‘ A Dictionary of Finance ’ podcast, Matt and Allar, wanted to find out what exactly it tells you, how its calculated—and how to pronounce it. We invited Aglaé Touchard-Le Drian and Gunter Fischer, inv...
Apr 29, 2018•16 min•Season 1Ep. 43
In this week’s episode of ‘ A Dictionary of Finance ’ podcast by the European Investment Bank we talk about the intersection of the private and the public sector in development finance. Specifically, we talk about how the public investment and development banks make projects bankable for the private sector. And make themselves obsolete in the process! As Aglaé Touchard-Le Drian, investment officer with EIB’s Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF), puts it rather more eloquen...
Apr 22, 2018•23 min
You—yes you—have been the subject of a KYC examination. No, not by your doctor. By your bank. KYC stands for Know Your Customer, Know Your Client or (in the case of a bank) Know Your Counterparty. It is the initial process by which a bank ensures that its client is not involved in money laundering or other activities that are illegal or could damage the bank’s reputation. If you’ve ever opened a bank account, the information you had to hand over to the bank was part of its “Know Your Customer,” ...
Apr 15, 2018•18 min
