News
Central Bank of Nigeria abandons FX window
Latest attempt to halt the sliding currency sees central bank cease to offer foreign exchange auctions, but interventions continue in the interbank market
ECB publishes first minutes
European Central Bank releases an ‘account’ of the discussion at the governing council meeting in January, which saw it launch quantitative easing in the eurozone
Greek crisis meeting gets go-ahead despite German challenge
A meeting of the Eurogroup will take place Friday after Greece yesterday sought a six-month bailout extension, but Germany has moved quickly to challenge the proposed compromise
Outgoing Belgian governor takes ECB role
Luc Coene named as one of four ECB representatives on the SSM supervisory board, a role he will start after stepping down as National Bank of Belgium governor next month
Swift in talks with Fed and ECB on real-time payments
Swift’s Juliette Kennel and Carlo Palmers talk to Central Banking about the company's leap into real-time payments in Australia, and discuss launching similar systems in other countries
Haldane says ‘cocktail’ of psychology and sociology behind divergent growth
BoE chief economist draws on history, sociology and psychology – as well as economics – in seeking to explain why growth rates differ so widely
Fed hawk Fisher receives Mexican eagle award
Richard Fisher granted Order of the Aztec Eagle by Mexican president; Agustín Carstens praises the Dallas Fed president’s use of ‘simple and straightforward’ language
Hungarian central bank taking on credit risk from SME loans
Extension to ‘funding for growth’ scheme sees central bank extend another 500 billion forint in cheap funding to banks and take on some of the credit risk from their loans to SMEs
Fed officials see ‘audit’ bill as threat to independence
Charles Plosser is the latest FOMC member to criticise bill that could see monetary policy decisions reviewed; Richard Fisher and Jerome Powell also raise concerns
People: New deputies in Angola as defence expert gets top Israel IT job
Two new deputy governors for National Bank of Angola; University of Chicago professor joins Slovak central bank board; defence expert takes on top IT job at Bank of Israel
Central Asian currencies under threat as Azerbaijan abandons peg
The Central Bank of Azerbaijan’s decision to drop its dollar peg and move to target a basket could have knock-on effects throughout the region, where currencies are already under pressure
Riksbank unveils new series of notes and coins
Majority of Sweden’s banknotes and coins to be updated by the end of 2016; new 20 krona note to be introduced and two krona coin to re-enter circulation
Poll: Should inflation targets be scrapped?
As advanced economies battle low inflation and interest rates remain constrained by the ZLB, should central banks rethink monetary policy orthodoxy?
Latest round of Greek bailout talks collapses
Discussions over extending Greece’s bailout collapsed late last night after the country's finance chief Yanis Varoufakis rejected a plan by the Eurogroup to continue with the current programme
Bahrain governor launches campaign for women bankers
Rasheed Al Maraj gives his backing to an initiative designed to promote gender equality in Bahrain’s financial sector; country has a patchy record when it comes to women’s rights
Australia opts for ‘tactile’ notes to assist the visually impaired
Australia follows Canada in offering tactile features on polymer banknotes despite apparent rejection of the idea by the Bank of England
MAS takes first steps towards crowdfunding regulations
Proposed regulations aim to strike a balance between encouraging a valuable source of finance for small businesses and managing the high risks associated with securities-based crowdfunding
IMF too sluggish to be global lender of last resort, say Allen and Moessner
The IMF’s response to the financial crisis was too weak and too late, leaving the Federal Reserve to pick up the slack, William Allen and Richhild Moessner argue in the Central Banking Journal
Ukraine unveils nine-member MPC
Central bank reveals composition and meeting schedule of new monetary policy committee, a body created to help ‘streamline’ the decision-making process
Growth of finance sucks skill from real economy, BIS paper warns
Financial growth crowds out real growth by drawing skilled labour away from other industries, with R&D hit particularly hard, a working paper by Stephen Cecchetti and Enisse Kharroubi finds
House committee calls on Fed to change leverage ratio
Segregated initial margin should be allowed to reduce exposure in cleared trades, says House Agriculture Committee in letter to Fed chair, Janet Yellen
Kalyalya replaces Gondwe as Bank of Zambia governor
Former deputy governor Denny Kalyalya replaces Michael Gondwe at the helm of the central bank, after new president decides he wants a change at the top
Cyprus central bank reviewing operational model
Central bank is commissioning a detailed study into its organisational structure to ensure it is ‘fit-for-purpose’, in light of concerns it has not ‘adequately evolved’ with the times
BoE could ease with deflation looming
Record low inflation may turn negative in the spring, inflation report shows; Mark Carney says rate cuts and QE remain options but BoE still expects next move to be a rate hike