Financial crisis
Fed’s safety nets are ‘fundamentally unsustainable’
The Fed’s new safety nets will allow “zombie companies” to thrive and drag down productivity; ever-increasing levels of interventions are “fundamentally unsustainable, intertemporally”, says William White
Coronavirus panic fuels a surge in cash demand
Covid-19 has led to banknote hoarding in Australia, Brazil, Canada, the eurozone, Russia and the US, fuelled by concerns about financial system stress, write Jonathan Ashworth and Charles Goodhart
BIS warns of further shockwaves in ‘generation-defining’ crisis
Solvency crisis is looming on the horizon and health crisis is far from over, BIS officials say, as they present the 2020 annual report
Funds warm to Esma liquidity rules after Covid crisis
Funds are embracing stress-testing, and swing pricing, after “a real liquidity crisis” in March
Fed caps dividends after stress tests show big potential losses
Brainard says decision not enough as tests show loan losses could exceed those during financial crisis
Book notes: Stable banks in challenging times, by Andreas Dombret
Dombret’s stability and rule-based compass should be that for every aspiring central banker, worldwide
Podcast: Boston Fed backs community action on Covid-19 and racial inequality
Working Cities Challenge is not only helping economic resurgence in struggling cities, but also fostering better responses to Covid-19 and racial inequality, official explains
Doyne Farmer’s next big adventure: capturing the universe
Complexity theorist plans to build an economic super-simulator on a global scale
Football stadiums to airlines: BoE reveals commercial paper holdings
Central bank has taken on exposures to a wide range of businesses – including polluters
Central banking enters a new era
Central banks face a delicate balancing act to preserve their reputations as they evolve into ‘buyers of last resort’ and some of their actions appear functionally equivalent to ‘monetary financing’
Georgian central bank launches liquidity support for SMEs
New programme will supply liquidity to commercial banks in exchange for loan collateral
Stress levels rising: investment funds and the Covid-19 shock
Extreme market stresses due to Covid-19 are underscoring the central role non-banks play in crisis contagion, as in 2008. Were regulators better prepared this time?
Campos Neto on reforming Brazil’s economy amid Covid-19 distress
The Central Bank of Brazil governor speaks about how Brazil is managing fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, the benefit of large reserves, his plans to deploy emergency asset purchases and why he favours extending the IMF’s SDR funding
Riksbank launches new financial vulnerability metric
“Systemic risk indicator” is designed to track overall financial stability across market segments
The complex art of reserve management
The coronavirus lockdown represents another inflection point for central banks seeking to optimise the management of their $12 trillion in FX reserves
FOMC considers more aggressive forward guidance
Officials discussed state-contingent forward guidance and yield curve control, April minutes show
Swedish financial stability risks rising, Riksbank says
Without new policy measures, banks’ losses may hamper credit supply, Riksbank warns
Economists debate monetary financing of China’s government debt
PBoC adviser dismisses idea of monetising government bonds despite calls from Ministry of Finance think-tank
The ECB, the lockdown and the monetary financing lock
The eurozone’s central bank may need to break its prohibition on monetary financing to fight the pandemic
Fed flags ‘elevated’ risk of financial stability pressures
System coped with immediate Covid-19 stresses, but trouble may be building, central bank says
PBoC’s post-pandemic policy is still up in the air
The Chinese central bank has resisted radical easing, but with the NPC meeting this week, more loosening could be on the way, despite debt-level concerns, writes Hui Feng
Bank of Canada warns of major rise in mortgage arrears
Mortgage arrears could rise to levels nearly double seen in global financial crisis, central bank says
Banks are ‘inherently unstable’, BIS paper finds
Researchers study the many roles banks play and find all of them tend towards instability
Fed set to adopt ‘elements’ of price-level targeting
Covid-19 could act as a catalyst for a Janet Yellen-supported Fed move to adopt elements of price-level targeting. But questions remain about the timing of such a move