News
People: Wampah becomes Bank of Ghana governor; Iosco replaces chair
Henry Wampah moves from acting to full governor of the Bank of Ghana; Iosco appoints new chair and vice-chairs; Poland gets new management board members; and more
Hungary launches $2bn scheme to boost SME lending
New scheme will lend to commercial banks interest-free to on-lend to SMEs; cash also available to re-finance foreign-denominated loans into Hungarian forints
Draghi promises Cyprus bail-out is ‘no template’
Mario Draghi says an established pecking order of ‘bail-inable’ debt will avoid repeating the chaotic resolution in Cyprus; ECB and BoE both hold rates
Kuroda unveils radical plan to end Japanese deflation
Measures aim to double monetary base in two years, with asset purchases no longer constrained by banknote rule; mixed response as questions raised over whether yet more easing will work
BoE economist warns of tendency to ‘overstate’ fiscal multipliers
Matthias Paustian says simple Keynesian models can produce unrealistically high fiscal multiplier when examining fiscal policy at the zero lower bound
IMF strikes €1 billion funding deal with Cyprus
Staff team agrees Fund’s contribution to overall bail-out package; Christine Lagarde praises Cyprus’s ‘ambitious’ programme of reforms
Haldane defends BoE's macro-prudential policy
Andrew Haldane says recent instruction to banks to increase levels of capital will stimulate lending to real economy; academics debate viability of macro-prudential policy
Australia shuffles top managers but governor Stevens stays on
RBA governor Stevens reappointed for three more years, while Wayne Byres moves from Basel Committee to head up prudential regulator Apra
Asean report maps road to financial integration
Key to achieving an Asean Economic Community will be capital account and financial services liberalisation; member states should integrate at their own pace, to avoid EMU-style crises
ECB’s Cœuré damns ‘Panglossian’ view of currency war danger
ECB board member’s comments on ‘dangerously alluring’ monetary easing come a week after Bernanke claimed widespread QE is an ‘enrich thy neighbour’ policy
UK enters new regulatory landscape
UK’s new conduct and prudential regulators take over from the FSA and aim to avoid the failings of their predecessor
Barbadian governor proposes adopting new policy rate
DeLisle Worrell and other senior central bank staff suggest adopting three-month Treasury bill rate as key policy rate, saying it is more practical for small, open economies
IMF calls on Hungary to safeguard central bank independence
The Fund's executive board urges National Bank of Hungary to preserve legal and operational independence; encourages a 'pause' in monetary easing
Bank of Lithuania chief urges banks to consider fee cuts as non-cash payments rise
Report shows sharp increase in volume of non-cash payments in Lithuania; governor Vitas Vasiliauskas says this gives banks room to consider cutting fees
Turkish banks face larger bill for holding forex and gold
Central bank increases price of holding gold and foreign exchange for Turkish banks who want to diversify reserve holdings away from Turkish lira
Fed doves disagree over FOMC's next move
Boston Fed’s Rosengren sees scope to continue asset purchases at current rate throughout 2013; Cleveland Fed’s Pianalto wants to slow programme down if labour market improvements hold
McKinnon says Fed must raise rates to stimulate growth and employment
Leading academic says positive real interest rates are the only way out of a credit crunch that's holding back lending to the productive economy
Michael Woodford backs combining nominal GDP and inflation target
Leading monetary policy theorist advocates immediate fiscal transfer to the public, funded by central bank purchase of government debt, coupled with adoption of nominal GDP target
Asia corporates unfairly ‘penalised’ by CVA capital charge
The move by European authorities to exempt European banks from holding CVA capital should be matched by regulators in Asia, according to senior bankers in the region
Fiji's new $5 note is island nation's polymer pioneer
New FJ$5 note will be Fiji's first polymer banknote, and will supplant the defunct FJ$2 note as the country's smallest
Brics leaders agree to set up $100 billion ‘financial safety net'
Contingent reserve agreement will allow Brics countries to provide each other financial support and will 'contribute to strengthening the global financial safety net'
Parliament gives Agus green light to become Bank Indonesia chief
Agus Martowardojo gets parliamentary approval to replace Darmin Nasution as governor of Bank Indonesia, after nine hours of questioning by commission
Slovenia picks new central bank governor to guide economy to safety
Boštjan Jazbec will take over from Marko Kranjec at the helm of the eurozone nation's central bank - tasked with 'repairing the financial sector'
BoE’s FPC calls on banks to raise more capital despite drop in lending
Financial Policy Committee says banks must correct a £25 billion shortfall by the end of the year, but should not cut lending; loans to private sector continue downward slide