News
Bloomberg sues Fed
Bloomberg, a news agency, filed a lawsuit against the Federal Reserve on Friday, alleging that the central bank had refused to disclose public information.
Regulator slams calls for IMF supervisory role
A senior European regulator has launched a scathing attack on politicians' calls for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to take a leading role in supervising the global economy.
Washington restructures loan to save battered AIG
The Treasury is to take a $40 billion stake in American International Group (AIG), once the biggest insurance company in the world, as part of a restructuring of the firm's $122.8 billion Federal Reserve loan.
DSK calls on G20 to bolster IMF coffers
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has urged G20 leaders to discuss ways to boost the Fund's resources at this weekend's summit.
Global banks want greater role for FSF
An enhanced Financial Stability Forum (FSF) should regulate the most important financial institutions, the global banking industry has said.
Eurozone banks clamp down on gloomy outlook
Eurozone banks are applying ever more-stringent conditions on the region's borrowers on fears of a worsening of economic activity.
SNB and Poland arrange currency swap
The Swiss National Bank and the National Bank of Poland on Friday agreed a currency swap facility to compensate for a lack of Swiss franc liquidity.
Zimbabwe returns charity donations
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on Friday repaid $7.3m to a charity after it was found to have confiscated donations pledged to fight killer diseases.
RBNZ to operate TAF to avert liquidity crunch
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand on Friday said it will follow the Federal Reserve's lead in establishing a Term Auction Facility (TAF) operation to enhance liquidity.
Korea cuts for second time in a fortnight
Bank of Korea chopped a quarter-point off its key rate on Friday on signs of a further weakening in domestic economic activity.
IMF sees advanced economies contracting in 2009
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday revised downwards its estimate for global growth next year by four-fifths of a percentage point to 2.2% and said it believes the advanced economies will contract over 2009.
Bank shocks with steepest cut for 24 years
The Bank of England on Thursday lopped one-and-a-half basis points off its benchmark rate for the first time since August 1984, confounding expectations of a far less severe move.
Markets obey laws of nature not math: NBB's Praet
The "once in a century" credit crisis demands a fundamental re-think in the way we view, and regulate, financial systems, Peter Praet, an executive director at the National Bank of Belgium and a member of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, has…
Czechs surprise with 75 basis-point cut
The Czech National Bank slashed its key rate by 75 basis points to 2.75% on Thursday on signs inflation risked falling below target next year.
ECB, SNB cut by 50 basis points
The European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday lopped a quarter point off its key rate and indicated further cuts were likely. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) also cut the upper and lower bounds by the same margin.
BoJ head hints at bubble-bursting role for rates
Masaaki Shirakawa, the governor of the Bank of Japan, has indicated that monetary policy should act on asset-price bubbles.
Bank to cut by 100 basis points?
The Bank of England will likely cut rates by a full percentage point on Thursday, some leading City of London economists believe.
Fed acts to enforce benchmark target
The Federal Reserve has moved to correct the disparity between its federal funds target and actual rates by raising the amount of interest paid on excess reserves held at the central bank.
Dollar Libor spreads plummet to pre-Lehman levels
Money-market tensions showed further signs of easing on Wednesday, with the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) for three-month dollar loans plunging 20 basis points to 2.51%.
NY Fed hires Bear Stearns' risk-management head
The chief risk officer at Bear Stearns, the now-defunct investment bank, has joined the New York Federal Reserve to advise on bank supervision.
Korea asks China for dollar-swap deal
The Bank of Korea on Tuesday confirmed that it had asked the People's Bank of China for a dollar-swap line after reports emerged on the proposed facility.
SARB "distinctly dovish" in latest policy review
South African Reserve Bank on Tuesday adopted a dovish tone in its latest Monetary Policy Review, saying inflation was likely to fall sharply towards the 3%-6% target range in the new year.
RBA slashes rates to five-year low
The Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday shocked markets with a sharper-than-expected rate cut of 75 basis points.
US banks clamp down on loan standards
American businesses are facing ever-more stringent loan conditions from most US lenders tightening standards on the back of the poor economic outlook, Federal Reserve data indicates.