News
ECCB sees sense in scrapping cents
Eastern Caribbean Central Bank insists ‘everyone will benefit from the withdrawal’ of one and two cent coins from July, as they are expensive to produce and carry very little purchasing power
Fed taper could hit African sovereign credits hard, World Bank warns
Cross-continent trade agreement could help provide bigger markets and greater efficiencies, but African economies face tough times ahead with borrowing costs set to rise
Draghi defends ECB participation in private events
ECB president tells EU ombudsman that Benoit Coeuré did not reveal market-sensitive information at event in London in May; attributes late publication of speech to ‘internal miscommunication’
Virus outbreak prompts Bank of Korea rate cut
Deadly Mers virus a key factor behind central bank’s decision to ease policy as economic recovery shows signs of faltering
Kiwi slides as RBNZ cuts OCR to boost demand
Reserve Bank of New Zealand cuts key rate to 3.25% and suggests further easing could follow; kiwi drops to lowest level against US dollar in almost five years in aftermath
Dutch paper says theory of forward guidance must catch up with practice
Economists from the Netherlands Bank argue so-called Odyssean communication ‘does not exist in practice’ as central banks want to avoid committing themselves to a particular set of actions
BoE launches push to create global forex code that ‘has teeth’
Fair and Effective Markets Review recommends effort to establish global code of conduct as part of implementing UK regulation of fixed income, currency and commodity markets
US ‘unwilling to compromise' on derivatives rules, China vice-minister of finance says
Differences in accounting practices remains an urgent issue, Zhu Guangyao argues in a new China report; contributors critical of dollar's ‘exorbitant privilege' as sole reserve currency
Iceland raises rates by 50bp and warns more will follow
Central bank says it will take ‘appropriate countervailing measures’ if the increase in government revenues from failed bank asset tax is used to stimulate the economy
BoJ’s Sato says QQE becoming harder to implement
Takehiro Sato warns easing programme risks undermining confidence in central bank policy by eroding fiscal discipline, making interest rates harder to control
China grapples with balance of financial reform and risk
The Chinese government is keen to encourage financial markets to catch up with manufacturing’s sophistication. But balancing liberalisation with stability and growth is proving complex
Chinese policy-makers offer olive branch on regional development
Jin Liqun and Zhu Guangyao say they will work with Bretton Woods institutions as the new infrastructure and development banks look to generate infrastructure investment in region
Iceland launches plan to lift capital controls
Failed banks' estates must agree settlement with creditors within six months or face heavy one-off tax; either way this should pave way for controls to be lifted next year
Minneapolis Fed begins hunt for next president
Narayana Kocherlakota will join the University of Rochester on January 1; search committee is hoping to appoint a ‘strategic thought leader’ to succeed him by the end of the year
Chan wants Canadian firms to access China through HK
HKMA chief executive says Canada should ‘leverage on’ Hong Kong’s unique access to mainland capital markets in Toronto pitch
Axel Weber slams ‘simplistic’ leverage ratio
Former Bundesbank president and now UBS chairman Weber says Basel III has not made the financial system better
Exchange launches asset-backed coins for asset managers
Asset managers will be able to trade physical assets directly with each other through new asset class dubbed ABCs, which will be tradeable on newly launched exchange Abacas
Turkish central bank acts as election prompts lira slump
Markets taken aback as president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s party falls short of majority; central bank measures fail to stop lira sliding to record low
Basel Committee lays out two tracks for banking book capital requirements
Consultation offers standardised option for greater transparency and comparability or tailored option to better account for regional characteristics – or a hybrid of the two
IMF deputy warns ‘leakages’ could undermine macro-prudential policy
Mitsuhiro Furusawa says macro-prudential tools could force financial activities into a less regulated sector or country, but adds little is known about benefits of ‘leaning against the wind’
Fed's Tarullo sees few signs of illiquidity in OTC markets
Fed governor says markets are in transition, while many actors are telling the Fed that it is harder to move large positions
BoE appoints Andrew Hauser to new executive director role
Head of Fair and Effective Markets Review appointed to new executive director role with responsibility over balance sheet risks, payments and banking operations
WEF panel in Africa values sound public policy over money
Outgoing African Development Bank president Donald Kaberuka says good policy crucial to development; World Bank vice-president Makhtar Diop says financing costs unfairly high
Qualified support for central clearing of repos in Australia
RBA consultation attracts general support from market participants, but respondents say benefits rely crucially on strong take-up – the same issue that ended Australia’s last repo CCP experiment