Financial Stability
NPLs ‘must’ rise during downturns – MAS’s Menon
If NPLs failed to rise during “difficult times”, that would be a sign banks are not doing their job right, MAS chief says
MAS concludes 1MDB review with fresh fines
Credit Suisse and UOB fined $1.6 million collectively, with further individuals receiving lifetime bans
Bulgarian financial system still faces risks – IMF report
Financial safety net presents “important challenges”, despite reform efforts, IMF staff say
Israeli survey highlights benefits from ‘digital revolution’
“Tremendous changes” in the banking system are likely to benefit households and small businesses, the central bank says, while stability is also improving
Pure DLT systems not yet suitable for wholesale payments – Bank of Canada
The current state of distributed ledger technology makes it too inefficient to run as a pure system, though elements could still be useful, researchers say; details of RTGS project emerge
Household debt is ‘serious threat’ to Swedish economy - Riksbank
Banking system is also vulnerable, central bank says
Bank Negara governor defends efforts to curb NDF market
Malaysian central bank will continue its actions to improve market mechanism to facilitate an open and robust onshore financial system
BIS’s Coen warns of danger in delays as output floors remain stuck
Long phase-in periods increase risk of “dilution or backtracking”, says BCBS secretary-general; remains vague on timetable for Basel III completion
DLT expert: central banks should consider wider uses than just payments
Instead of payments, central banks should look to implement DLT for identity document transfer, says Michael Mainelli; expert takes more cautious view of the technology
Eurozone’s non-bank sector taking more risks – ECB
Insurers and investment funds moving to higher-risk assets
No Asean pan-regional regulator in near future – panellists
Divergent stages of development, a desire for sovereignty and the limited business case are hampering further integration, speakers say
Poorly designed macro-pru leads to ‘leakages’, says Turkish working paper
Macro-pru should be designed so firms cannot “bypass” regulations implemented during positive global liquidity shocks; generally policies are effective in controlling credit
Greek bailout talks end without agreement
IMF fails to agree that commission concessions would make debt sustainable
Belgian paper examines use of illiquid loans as collateral
Liquidity and funding purposes both inform banks’ decisions, researchers say
Tackling the ‘human agency’ problem
Central banks are readying their communication strategies to mitigate a populist backlash against their post-crisis policies
RBI begins to wield new banking clean-up powers
Central bank puts pressure on banking sector to carry through plans to address non-performing assets; floats idea of supplying its own credit ratings to prevent “rating shopping”
Risk weightings should reflect borrowing constraints, paper argues
Finnish paper criticises principle behind regulations on capital requirements
Kohn worried about weight of expectations on Federal Reserve
The weight of expectations on the US Fed may be too high; the US is not as well placed as the UK to tackle another major crisis, says the former Fed vice-chair
ECB calls for insolvency and banking taxation reform
Europe would benefit from greater M&A activity in banking, European Central Bank says
HKMA tightens macro-prudential measures for second time in a week
Hong Kong authority imposes another round of mortgage tightening measures, targeting home buyers with multiple loans and those whose incomes are not derived from the territory
Banking flows affected by ‘Anna Karenina principle’ – paper
All healthy credit relationships are alike, but each unhealthy credit relationship is unhealthy in its own way, the study explains