Central Banks
G20 working group: development banks must lend now
Multilateral development banks and other international financial institutions should step up their counter-cyclical efforts to offset capital flight from emerging markets, says a report from a working group prepared for the G20 London summit.
De Grauwe labels Maastricht rules political tools
The Maastricht criteria for euro adoption are political instruments, not economically-vital measures, a respected economist has said.
Tokyo seeks meeting with Shirakawa on economy woe
A senior Japanese politician has called for a meeting with Masaaki Shirakawa, the governor of Bank of Japan, apparently to ask the central bank to do more to abate the economic downturn.
Fed planning communication enhancements: reports
The Federal Reserve looks set to bow to political pressure and disclose more details of its various attempts to tackle the crisis, which have led to the central bank's balance sheet more than doubling in size.
US working on stress-test disclosure: report
Washington is working on proposals to disclose the results of its stress tests on the 19 biggest American banks, say reports.
Bernanke sees shoots of recovery
There are tentative signs that the sharp decline in economic activity may be slowing, said Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve.
SA's Mminele on Southern Africa's goals
The Southern African Development Community's goal is to achieve a single currency and a regional central bank by 2018, said Daniel Mminele, an executive general manager of the South African Reserve Bank.
Blame technology for bankruptcies
Technological progress has a significant effect on the bankruptcy rate, a new paper from the Richmond Federal Reserve posits.
ECB dissenter Orphanides heralds deflation threat
Athanasios Orphanides, the governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus and a staunch advocate of a looser monetary-policy stance, has warned of the increasing threat of the eurozone deflation.
UAE sees assets depreciate by a third
The value of the assets held by Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates fell by almost a third last year, the central bank revealed on Tuesday.
Poland seeks $20.5 billion IMF credit line
Poland on Tuesday became the second country to ask for access to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) new credit lines, requesting $20.5 billion to buttress the country against the crisis.
Tarp to get new head, Goldman to repay funds
Reports emerged on Tuesday that the head of Fannie Mae would replace Bush-administration appointee Neel Kashkari as the overseer of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp). The news came after Goldman Sachs announced on Monday a $5 billion public…
Iceland's Oygard optimistic on recovery
Svein Oygard, the new governor of the Central Bank of Iceland, is confident that the country can become an exemplar of how to conduct a swift economic recovery.
Monies contain embedded options
The face values of all notes and coins contain embedded options, argues a new paper written by Espen Gaarder Haug and John Stevenson, two quantitative-finance analysts.
G20 working group: amend Bretton Woods governance
Emerging and developing economies should have greater voice and representation in Bretton Woods institutions, says a report from a working group prepared for the G20 London summit.
Crisis highlights shortfalls in UK payments: BoE
The financial crisis has uncovered uncertainties and knowledge gaps among market participants in the United Kingdom's payment and settlement infrastructure, the Bank of England said on Tuesday.
Bank of England holds on quantitative easing
The Bank of England has opted to wait and see what impact its quantitative easing programme is having before pledging a further boost to the money supply.
Bernanke: emergency aid will be repaid
The Federal Reserve's support facilities for specific institutions carry more risk than traditional central bank liquidity support, but we nevertheless expect to be fully repaid, said Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the central bank.
FOMC views differ on scale of asset purchases
Senior Federal Reserve officials disagree on the amount of Treasuries and mortgage-agency debt the central bank should buy, minutes of the last Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) show.
Czechs name new communications head
Marek Petrus, now head of research at the Prague office of Egon Zehnder, a consultancy, is to take over from Pavlina Bolfova as the Czech National Bank's communications head at the start of next month.
Nigeria cuts for first time in seven months
The Central Bank of Nigeria sliced 175 basis points off its key interest rate on Thursday with the scarcity of credit outweighing concerns over inflation.
REVIEW: Central Banking in a Free Society
The crisis has shown the need for privately-owned central banks, says Tim Congdon, a monetary economist, in a new book.
Iceland cuts by 150 basis points
The Central Bank of Iceland cut its policy rate by one and half basis points to 15.5% on Wednesday, the second cut in less than a month.
Bernanke, Dudley justify Talf
Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, and William Dudley, the president of the New York Fed, moved to temper fears among lawmakers that the central bank's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (Talf) puts taxpayers' money at risk.