Legal
Majority of central banks lack legal authority to issue CBDC
Technical CBDC design has legal implications
Podcast: fixing the gaps in fintech laws
Fintech is reshaping the nature of contracts and even financial firms themselves, but laws are not adapting so fast, say IMF lawyers José Garrido and Juan Sebastián Viancha Trujillo
Navigating the digital transformation at Deutsche Bundesbank – an update
Joachim Wuermeling explains how the Covid-19 pandemic and other developments have affected the German central bank’s digital transformation during the past two years
Pakistan passes central bank autonomy law
Senate approval brings country closer to meeting IMF loan requirements
Two-thirds of central banks have a centralised risk unit
Central banks with a centralised risk unit tend to use KRIs
Cyber security risks rose most in the past year
Operational and market risks also increased
The longest book ever written?
The Single Rulebook on EU financial regulation is a serious contender for the prize of the longest book ever written. But will it deliver a safer and better financial system?
UK court recognises Venezuelan opposition central bank board
Rival Venezuelan leaders have struggled over central bank and overseas gold reserves
How Turkey’s president created chaos in economic policy-making
Observers allege presidential domination of the central bank, unauthorised FX transactions and untrustworthy statistics
James Bullard on Fed policy, action and governance
St Louis president calls for tapering amid “exceptional” job market and risk of “more persistent” inflation, quantifies ‘big tent language’ for pioneering AIT move, and details Congress’s role in Fed ethics oversight
MAS consults on ‘Cosmic’ risk info-sharing platform
Digital platform for AML/CFT information sharing could be launched as soon as 2023
Summers: digital yuan unlikely to threaten US dollar
Traceability of Chinese CBDC amid “financial thunderbolts” from Beijing may limit appeal, says former top US economics policy-maker
Podcast: Fintech and the question of central bank autonomy
Central banks should ensure their fintech activities do not undermine transparency and independence, say Wouter Bossu and Arthur Rossi
BSP calls for criminalisation of ‘extreme’ coin hoarding
Philippines central bank proposal comes as police seize hoard of 50 million pesos worth of pennies
Why fintech governance matters for central banks
Fintech throws up an array of challenges that may require central banks to adapt their frameworks
China outlaws all crypto transactions and bans mining
PBoC, cyber watchdog and central economic planner act in a joint crackdown on crypto
Most central banks cannot bring criminal charges against banks
But 87.5% of institutions report they can refer these charges to other public institutions
RBNZ served ‘compliance notice’ after cyber attack
Privacy commissioner concerned by possible “systemic weakness” in central bank’s cyber defences
Criteria for systemically important payment infrastructure differs
Thirty-one out of 37 central banks said they designate systemically important payment infrastructure
The IMF’s $650bn SDR allocation and a future ‘digital SDR’
Focus is needed on widening SDR use in payments and the creation of a ‘digital SDR’, to support a large allocation of ‘official’ IMF SDRs, writes Warren Coats
Sanctioned disobedience: the challenge of protecting whistleblowers
Most central banks have policies on whistleblowing, but practice and usage vary widely
US court finds Iranian central bank liable in terrorism suit
Plaintiffs sued Iran and Syria in US court for damages in 2015 Hamas attack
Somalia’s governor on rebuilding its central bank
Governor Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi discusses reviving Somalia’s war-damaged economy, re-creating a payments system, and dealing with remittances
Three ways to bolster flawed AML/CFT in the EU
The EU needs to significantly improve the structure and resourcing of its AML/CFT oversight if it really wants to combat illicit money flows, write Panicos Demetriades and Radosveta Vassileva