Central Banks
2015: The year in review
Research exploring new frontiers and challenging the prevailing orthodoxies took centre stage over the past year - we look back at some of the biggest stories
Czech Republic chooses not to set target date for euro adoption
Government decision follows central bank and ministry of finance advice; authorities cite need for greater real economic convergence as a ‘main barrier’ to adoption
IMF calls for change to Bolivian central bank’s lending practices
IMF staff encourage Bolivian authorities to prevent the central bank from lending directly to public corporations, but they disagree
Macro-prudential limits would have had ‘substantial’ impact in Ireland last decade, paper finds
Research published by the Central Bank of Ireland models the impact of macro-prudential policies, including effects on credit available to households and house prices
Bank of England paper explores time-varying capital requirements
Authors use firm-bank level database from UK to examine impact of higher capital requirements on asset growth of borrowing firms; also consider interaction with monetary policy
Markov switching model enables diagnosis of ‘systemic financial stress episodes’, ECB paper argues
A Markov switching model can be used to diagnose episodes when both the real and the financial economies are subject to simultaneous severe stress, paper finds
Chilean central bank spells out risks to outlook
Central bank expects inflation to return to 3% target by end of 2017 according to latest forecasts; details risks from home and abroad to macroeconomic outlook
Bank of England tackles challenges flagged by staff survey
While the results show a strong, positive corporate culture at the BoE, the central bank has identified four areas for improvement
Turkey holds policy rates steady despite rising inflation
Turkey’s monetary policy committee voted to keep interest rates steady despite inflation continuing to rise further above its target level
Irish regulations aim to extend protection to SMEs
Regulations published by the Central Bank of Ireland aim to increase the transparency and protection offered to small and medium enterprises borrowing from banks
RBI is rebalancing shadow-banking regulation, Gandhi says
The central bank seeks to tighten regulation and move from entity- to activity-based rules, the deputy governor says
Russian and Chinese central banks sign MoU
The governors of the Russian and Chinese central banks sign memorandum of understanding; will now be able to issue bonds in each other’s markets
Malawi stress test shows three banks fall below Tier 1 requirement under minor credit shock
Latest stress tests show improved resilience but credit shocks remain greatest risk, Malawi’s latest financial stability report reveals
People: NBIM names real estate CEO; Gerlach moves to private sector
Norges Bank Real Estate Management gets CEO; Stefan Gerlach takes up new role at Swiss private bank BSI; and more
Paper warns macro-prudential tools can have ‘blunt’ impact
Working paper sees potential for macro-prudential tools to have ‘aggregate’ impact, using ‘quantitative restriction’ deployed in Japan from 1970s onwards as an example
IMF reforms approved by US Congress
Christine Lagarde and the People’s Bank of China welcome the approval of the US Senate for quota and governance reforms at the IMF, agreed by the board in 2010
‘Step-in risk’ could become part of Basel framework
Basel Committee consults on the risks created by a bank intervening to support third parties, but reserves judgement on how to incorporate such risks into the Basel framework
NSFR should be introduced for all EU credit institutions, EBA says
A net stable funding ratio must be introduced for all EU credit institutions, broadly in line with Basel model, the EBA says; data suggests most EU banks are already compliant
National Bank of Austria tells banks not to slow reform pace
Financial stability report notes trend of improving capitalisation has slowed; urges banks to continue the reform process and avoid short-term growth at the expense of stability
Rohde says resolution offers ‘genuine alternative’ to granting emergency liquidity
With the ability to recover or resolve firms in an orderly fashion, the National Bank of Denmark finds itself with an alternative to granting emergency liquidity assistance, governor says