Central Banks
Indonesia to launch new banknote and coin series with a ‘bang’
New banknote and coin series featuring Indonesian “national heroes” to launch later this year; smallest coin will not feature in new series
Irish central bank announces major internal reorganisation
Bank will split market supervision department in two and create new financial stability directorate; full-time director of corporate affairs to be appointed
Target2 balance surge not a sign of eurozone ‘stress’ – ECB’s Praet
European Central Bank’s chief economist says €400 billion increase in outstanding euro real-time gross settlement claims is largely due to ECB’s asset purchases, rather than eurozone weakness
Post-crisis banking regulations increase large firms’ funding advantage – paper
Banque de France working paper presents a large-scale DGSE model with large and small firms to analyse the impact of new banking regulations
China has room to regulate local government financing – IMF paper
Government can and should rein in fiscal risks posed by public-private partnerships, authors say, as they outline “four pillar” regulatory framework
Norges Bank paper studies forecast asymmetry at lower bound
Effective lower bound need not translate into asymmetries in other forecast variables, authors find; regime-switching DSGE model helps overcome Lucas critique
Markets back under central bank ‘sway’ – BIS quarterly review
Recent equity rally is “more stick than carrot”, says Claudio Borio, as latest report points to fresh signs of discomfort among banks and continued market distortions
Mark Carney: it would ‘make sense’ to get rid of UK penny
“What’s the point of the penny?” – children quiz BoE governor; Carney says as inflation rises, there might be reason to abolish the low-value coin
Andrew Bailey warns of macro impact from pensions trouble
FCA chief says low interest rates and other factors shaping the pensions market are likely to have knock-on effects on the economy, though the area is not well understood
Obituary: Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Former Bank of Italy governor dies aged 95. The former partisan also held the roles of finance minister, prime minister and president
Riksbank paper offers method for tackling distorted forecast evaluation
Authors adjust for different amounts of information available, allowing them to overcome distortions in forecast evaluation
Zimbabwe to print $75 million in ‘bond notes’ in 2016
Reserve bank to issue US dollar-“equivalent” notes despite criticism from the general public; incentive facility to be backed by Afrimexbank
BIS paper examines impact of money market deregulation and integration
Integration of money markets and ability of banks to raise funds using variety of substitutable instruments has implications for monetary policy, paper says; deregulation results in larger open market operations
Greek central bank governor is ‘the real goal’ of police raid, wife says
Greek police raid the office of a company owned by the wife of central bank governor Yannis Stournaras; she denies all wrong-doing and says aim of raid is to “denigrate” her husband
BoE lays out blueprint for RTGS reboot
“Comprehensive rebuild” of current large-value payments platform will retain many core features while adding new resilience, access options, functionality and interoperability
Cœuré mulls advantages and problems of GDP-linked bonds
ECB board member Benoît Cœuré says GDP-linked bonds could protect taxpayers but pricing might be difficult; says international financial institutions could play “catalytic” role
People: BoE appoints Brexit co-ordinator; Lagarde chooses Selassie to head Africa department
Phil Evans put in charge of work on UK’s exit from European Union at the Bank of England; Christine Lagarde appoints new Africa chief; and more
‘Absolutely urgent’ for Mexico to strengthen fiscal stance – Sánchez
Bank of Mexico deputy governor stresses need for fiscal revamp to bolster the Mexican economy as monetary policy can only carry so much weight
Richmond Fed tries to bridge gap between rules and discretion
Economist presents research urging Fed to be more explicit about its strategy using “graphical framework”, while Jeffrey Lacker says rules offer valuable guidance to policy-makers