Central Banks
BoJ survey reveals growing pessimism over economy
Share of respondents who expect conditions to worsen over coming year rises to over one-third, although most believe conditions have stayed the same over the past 12 months, and will do so again
Swiss RTGS update goes live
SNB hails successful launch of completely overhauled real-time gross settlement system; design has been made more flexible, incorporating ISO 20022 messaging standard
IMF director calls for fiscal expansion in eurozone
Greek attempts to consolidate fiscal position by increasing top tax rates ‘simply not working’, director says
People: ECB names HR director-general; BoE gets new MPC member
ECB appoints new head of human resources; Citigroup economist joins Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee; New York Fed’s chief lawyer to step down after twenty-one years in the role
RBNZ signs up SIA to deliver RTGS replacement
Its subsidiary, Perago, will deliver payments infrastructure for New Zealand via “off-the-shelf” system used by Riksbank and Norges Bank
Paper finds Norwegian housing market is ‘micro efficient’
Research published by Norges Bank exploits dataset comprising 472,378 housing transactions; finds little persistence but a lot of reversion in sale prices
IMF will consider macro-prudential policies in capital flow ‘stock-take’
Lagarde sheds light on stocktaking exercise that will use Article IVs over past three years to assess how IMF’s guidance on “capital flow management” has worked in practice
The People’s Bank of China’s internet finance dilemma
China’s central bank faces a challenge encouraging the development of market-based internet financial services while regulating a business where a $7.6 billion Ponzi scheme recently blew up
New Tunisian central bank law boosts independence and expands mandate
Law governing the Tunisian central bank is amended, with the aim of increasing independence and giving the bank a financial stability role; law drafted by the central bank with IMF assistance
Norway’s NBIM drops first batch of coal investments
Fund excludes 52 coal-related companies from portfolio in first “tranche”, with more planned; measuring exactly which firms fall within boundary proves tricky
Italian deputy governor calls for fiscal expansion in eurozone
Some eurozone countries should follow fiscally expansionary policies, Bank of Italy deputy governor argues; policy so far has been “less expansionary” than other major economies
Medium-sized banks are main contributors to systemic risk in Brazilian interbank market, paper says
Emergence of bank communities may act as triggers for systemic risk, stress test scenario shows; medium-sized banks carry non-negligible default probabilities
Fed’s Brainard highlights potential in distributed ledgers
Policy-makers cannot afford to ignore the possibilities new technology could offer clearing and settlement systems, Lael Brainard says
Prudential measures may create risks for developers – RBA
Tighter regulations designed to tackle housing risks may cause problems for large building projects started before the tougher rules came in
Asylum seekers at risk of financial exclusion, EBA warns
European countries must ensure asylum seekers are not excluded from financial services by anti-money laundering rules, EBA says; calls on some authorities to take action
Fed should stay the course with gradual rate rises – Lacker
The Federal Open Market Committee should continue raising rates, suggests Richmond Fed president; oil price falls and financial markets volatility both stabilising, Lacker argues
Riksbank lays out ideas for macro-prudential overhaul
Executive board accepts many – but not all – recommendations of King and Goodfriend review, and offers some radical ideas of its own
Kuroda: Negative rates having ‘visible’ impact on JGB yields
Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda says rates are falling across the yield curve, falling negative up to a maturity of “around” 10 years; sees effects spreading in future
Namibia in process of scrapping assistant governor position for second deputy
Bank of Namibia board to review proposal for legislative changes this month, before submitting it to parliament; assistant governor role vacant for over two years
Bank of England to react ‘more cautiously’ to data in light of EU referendum
Uncertainty over referendum to affect macroeconomic data over next few months; inflation rising but still well below BoE target
Embargoed lock-ups scrapped after RBNZ confirms leak
Report says a journalist leaked the March 10 cut to colleagues; Reserve Bank of New Zealand ends practice of allowing media and analysts advance access to rate decisions and major reports
Central Banking launches ‘responsive’ website
New website aims to offer more user-friendly experience, automatically adjusting to whatever device used – be it computer, tablet or smartphone