Reserves
Fed's Olson : A regulator's view of banking
In a speech on 'A Regulator's View of Emerging Issues in Community Banking' given on 27 February, Mark Olson of the Federal Reserve said that America's small, community banks must watch asset and liability management and take care they don't get caught…
SARB removes apartheid's forex overhang
South African Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni said on Monday 1 March that the SARB last month closed out its oversold forward book to eliminate a structural overhang in the economy caused by apartheid.
Caruana on risk management
In a speech to the 5th Annual Risk Management Convention given on 24 February, Jaime Caruana, Chairman of the Basel Committee, said impressive advances have been achieved in measuring and managing exposures to market risk, credit risk and, more recently,…
America's dangerous deficit
We distribute this article from the International Herald Tribune, with permission, as it is among the first that we have seen in the mainstream media publicly speculating about the possibility of the US effectively restricting access of central banks to…
Qualitative aspects of effective risk management
In the a speech on 'Qualitative Aspects of Effective Risk Management' given on 25 February, Susan Schmidt Bies of the Federal Reserve said the recent accounting scandal at Italian business giant Parmalat shows corporate governance issues are global in…
BIS offers to manage Philippines reserves- reports
The Philippines central bank is studying a BIS proposal to manage the country's gross international reserves. A source at the BSP said the BIS expressed interest in acting as its "external fund manager".
BI aims for skills increase in staff
Supervisory staff at Bank Indonesia will be required to receive competence certificates under new measures to improve the banking industry.
Netherlands plans to offload $866m of gold
The Dutch central bank plans to sell 65 tons of gold valued at $866 million when the 15-country gold sales agreement expires in September, spokesperson Tobias Oudejans said on Tuesday. 17 February
Heikensten-Risk management and financial stability
In a speech on 'Risk management and financial stability' given on 17 February, Lars Heikensten of the Sveriges Riksbank said regardless of the fact that there are now outstanding issues to be resolved to improve risk management, his overall conclusion is…
Fed says central banks keep buying US debt
Holdings of US government debt held by foreign central banks hit a new record high, the Federal Reserve said on Thursday 12 February. The Fed said it was partly due to the Bank of Japan's heavy intervention in the markets.
New light on the Fed's history
Allan Meltzer finds the Fed at fault for the Great Depression, but he may not have the complete picture contends Tim Congdon.
Russian for ex intervention hits record $3bn
The central bank of Russia spent a record $3 billion on Tuesday 10 february to hold down the ruble. The intervention represented the biggest foreign-exchange intervention in Russia's history.
Argentina holds 'constructive' IMF talks
Argentina's Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna described talks with IMF chief Horst Koehler on Monday as constructive but said there was no change in its offer to repay its defaulted debt at 25 cents on the dollar.
Schroeder suggests gold reserves used to fund R&D
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was quoted in an interview on Thursday 5 February as suggesting that Bundesbank gold reserves could be used to finance research and development projects.
Forex reserves hit record high in South Korea
South Korea's foreign exchange reserves hit a record high in January, helped by the government's continued dollar buying.
Chavez presses Venezuela's cen bank on funds
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez repeated on Sunday 1 February demands that that the central bank complete its commitments to release reserves to finance the state revival of the nation's flagging farm industry.
Tanigaki says Japan could increase gold holdings
Japan's Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said in response to a parliamentary question that Japan may consider increasing its gold reserves to bring them more into line with levels elsewhere.
Russia sees gold and forex reserves increase
Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves have reached a record-high of 82.7 billion dollars, official figures from the central bank of Russia showed on Thursday 29 January..
Iraq to talk debt with G-7 and IMF
Top finance officials from Iraq and Afghanistan will meet next month with their counterparts from the G7 industrial countries and Russia to report on progress in reconstruction.
Report says Bundesbank wants 600 tonnes gold sale
A report said Germany's Bundesbank has registered its intention to sell a total of 600 tonnes of gold over the next five years.
Venezuela's central bank under pressure
This article looks at the position of the central bank of Venezuela (BCV) following calls from President Hugo Chavez to hand over $1 billion from its reserves. Chavez has called it 'absurd' and 'crazy' for the reserves just to sit in the bank, and…
Venezuela's central bank defies Chavez
Venezuela's central bank is examining ways in which it can deflect controversial demands from president Hugo Chavez to hand over $1bn of its foreign reserves for what could be a public spending spree.
BOJ bought Y1.9100 trn shares from banks to 10 Jan
The Bank of Japan said on Wednesday it had bought a total of 1.9100 trillion yen ($17.98 billion) of shares held by Japanese banks by January 10 under its programme aimed at reducing the banks' exposure to stock market volatility.
BoJ may ease rules on asset-backed securities
Proposed rule changes to the Bank of Japan's asset-backed securities purchase will be on the agenda for discussion when the BoJ Policy Board convenes on Jan 19-20.