Central Banks
People: Fijian deputy takes over in interim as Whiteside departs; FCA chairman to step down
Fijian deputy governor takes over as interim governor as Whiteside departs; FCA’s John Griffith-Jones to leave next year; Fed’s payment system director to retire; and more
Making the rules and breaking the mould (Allan Meltzer: 1928–2017)
John Taylor writes about the extraordinary life of a pioneering economist whose lifelong work defied traditional rules – but one who strongly advocated them for central banks
BIS paper: forces driving global liquidity are shifting
Paper examines factors behind changing patterns of global liquidity, finding improved prudential standards have cut volatility
Greek bailout funds approved but debt relief still contentious
IMF agrees “in principle” to new support for Greece, unlocking European funds, but parties still fail to reach accord on debt relief
BoE economist sees monetary policy benefits to demonetisation
Removal of high-denomination notes could help central bankers maintain policies of low inflation and interest rates near the zero lower bound
Aruba central bank keeping an eye on government deficit
Caribbean central bank says borrowing from the domestic market could put pressure on international reserves; says it will be monitoring the situation “closely”
BSP piles pressure on banks to adopt new chip technology
Philippines central bank imposes “hard deadline” for banks to migrate to EMV technology, as initial target has been missed
Bank of Japan strikes upbeat tone as it keeps policy on hold
The Bank of Japan decided to leave policy settings unchanged at its June meeting, but sounded more upbeat on the outlook
MPC dissent grows amid BoE dilemma
Rates remain on hold but committee split 5-3 as some argue the BoE’s difficult trade-off has shifted in favour of tackling inflation
Norges Bank sees room for improvement when forecasting wages
Evaluation of forecast performance shows both the central bank and other forecasters struggled to produce accurate estimates of wage growth and unemployment
Crapo: US Treasury reforms will be ‘complicated’
Democrats unlikely to back changes that benefit big banks, Senate banking committee chair says
Former central bank governors debate unconventional monetary policy
Trichet, Shirakawa and Weber agree unconventional tools may have outstayed their welcome; costs of tools used during the crisis will not be known for some time, Weber says
OECD urges RBNZ to adopt debt-to-income restrictions
The OECD said adding a debt-to-income limit to the RBNZ’s macro-prudential instruments could increase the resilience of bank balance sheets
Overvalued Swiss currency is keeping rates low – SNB’s Jordan
The Swiss franc remains “significantly overvalued”, despite low interest rates and forex interventions; expansionary monetary policy makes the franc “less attractive” for investors