Articles by Central Banking Newsdesk
People: Fed appoints new director; Ghana and Uzbekistan add deputies
Matthew Eichner named director of reserve bank operations and payment systems at the Fed board; Bank of Ghana and Central Bank of Uzbekistan name new deputy governors
SNB officials fend off latest ideas for reform
Thomas Jordan and Jean Studer warn of the damage that could be done by proposals including sovereign money, broader mandate and using reserves to create sovereign wealth fund
‘Challenging' year spurs diversification of Hong Kong's exchange fund
HKMA says it is accelerating its process of reserves diversification after it was hit by a "triple whammy" in all major asset classes in 2015
IMF staff weigh options for tackling Chinese NPLs
Technical note authored by three IMF employees considers how securitising NPLs or converting them to equity might work in the Chinese context; latest CBRC figures show the stock is growing
Nonlinear models struggle to outperform VARs, Azerbaijani paper finds
Central bank’s first working paper finds various different nonlinear forecasting models perform poorly against autoregressive and VAR models, and even random walks
RBI plans to regulate nascent P2P market
Central bank proposes bringing peer-to-peer lending within its regulatory remit, fearing lack of oversight might lead the rapidly growing sector to develop “unhealthy practices”
National Bank of Romania flags ‘severe systemic risk’ posed by legislative framework
Central bank publishes first of two financial stability reports due this year, after change in policy; stresses concerns over range of legislative initiatives, including "debt discharge" law
Wheeler says further easing may be needed as RBNZ holds
Wheeler says interest rate cuts could be needed, though the RBNZ kept its key rate at 2.25% today; mixed picture with dairy export prices improving but currency still high
BoJ holds policy despite weakening expectations
Yen climbs as policy board keeps interest rates and asset purchases at existing levels; growth and inflation forecasts cut while there is “considerable uncertainty” around the outlook
Fed holds and drops reference to global risks
Federal Open Market Committee holds federal funds rate as widely expected; suggests growth in economic activity has slowed but concerns about global developments have eased
Panellists at ECB conference challenge complexity of macro-prudential set-up
Public and private sector representatives agree it is too early to judge macro-prudential framework; identify some positive elements but raise concerns about institutional complexity
BoE’s Cunliffe notes ‘gap’ between bank return and investor expectation
Investors should be prepared for lower returns in the coming year, Bank of England deputy says; risks to the housing market show signs of reducing but FPC poised to act if necessary
Time ‘ripe’ to consolidate public banks – RBI’s Gandhi
Consolidation could help banks spread their risk and compete on a global scale, deputy governor says – though they may need a “nudge” from government to get going
Researchers explore link between rates and consumption in new model
Working paper published by ECB examines transmission mechanism of monetary policy in a heterogeneous agent New Keynesian model
Researchers uncover details of ‘sophisticated’ Bangladesh Bank hack
Hackers showed deep understanding of Swift systems, going to great lengths to hamper Bangladesh Bank’s response, research by BAE finds
Poloz upbeat on US and Canadian productivity prospects
Bank of Canada governor explores evolution of international trade; it may have fallen, but there are still opportunities for productivity growth, Poloz says
Outflows during normalisation proportional to earlier inflows, paper warns
Working paper examines the effects unconventional monetary policies in advanced economies had on capital flows in emerging markets, and predict what is to come during normalisation
Mersch sets out broad questions around distributed ledgers
Yves Mersch considers how access to central bank money could work if market infrastructure adopts the technology; ECB publishes paper on its application in post-trade market for securities
BoE paper seeks unified global approach to NPLs
A multidisciplinary approach to legal, accounting, statistical, economic and strategic elements of loan loss provisioning and NPLs
Italian paper looks at ECB’s reserve management
Bank of Italy working paper studies the management of the ECB’s foreign exchange reserves; diversity of managers’ investment styles may positively affect risk-adjusted returns, authors say
Paper explores reserve management in closed economies
Working paper published by IMF presents intertemporal optimisation model designed to help assess how closed economies should use their reserves when guarding against current account shocks
Sarb reserve management policy sheds light on tranches
South African Reserve Bank publishes investment policy governing allocation of FX and gold; splits reserves into range of tranches and sub-tranches
Turkey vulnerable to sudden stop, IMF warns
Central bank action on rates, operating framework and reserves would help shore up the country’s weak external position and tame inflation, fund says
Macro-prudential policies should apply to shadow banking sector, researchers argue
Macro-prudential policies can have substitution effects between bank and non-bank credit, working paper says; macro-prudential policy should be extended towards the non-bank sector