News
Women feature heavily on new US dollar designs
Final designs to be announced in 2020, Treasury secretary announces; while security features are yet to be announced, multiple historic female figures will be incorporated into designs
Basel Committee opts for local discretion on rate risk
Committee abandons attempt to create common global standard for interest rate risk, opting instead to leave discretion with banks and supervisors in final standards
New Turkish governor presides over cut at first meeting
Monetary easing remains the order of the day at the Turkish central bank, as MPC lowers ceiling of rate corridor in Murat Çetinkaya’s first week in office
Parliament gains influence in FCA chief appointments
George Osborne says Treasury Select Committee will be able to scrutinise future appointments before they are formalised, with the ability to send them to the House of Commons for a vote
Swedish regulator takes second stab at amortisation rule
Macro-prudential regulator unveils plans for mandatory amortisation similar to those struck down by the Swedish judiciary in 2015
French governor calls for ‘gradualism’ in fintech regulation
François Villeroy de Galhau sees merits in “proportionate adaptation” of regulations for fintech companies; other contributors to latest FSR argue in favour of same rules for same risks
Brazil and Paraguay near local currency payment system
Cross-border system could account for 5% of all trade between the countries; importers and exporters can use own currencies
Carney stresses bank resilience in face of large shocks
UK banks display resilience when threatened with Brexit-like shock, stress tests show; London "unlikely" to retain global financial centre status if Britain leaves EU, Carney says
Swiss National Bank loans $200m to Ukraine
Switzerland’s central bank will loan $200m to its Ukrainian counterpart to replenish its reserves; move comes as political uncertainty clouds future of Ukraine’s IMF funding
Nigerian central bank provides sugar refinery with $131m
Central Bank of Nigeria confirms it supplied $131 million to fund the construction of a sugar refinery; governor says the bank will support moves towards self-sufficiency
Minneapolis Fed to explore resolution alternatives in TBTF initiative
Neel Kashkari adds alternative resolution mechanisms to the agenda as Minneapolis Fed looks for solutions to the too-big-to-fail problem; discusses outcomes from this month’s symposium
Reserve managers: divergent monetary policy will impact work in 2016
Survey results from forthcoming book identify divergence across the globe as key influence on reserve management; suggest renminbi investments are growing in popularity
Swiss RTGS update goes live
SNB hails successful launch of completely overhauled real-time gross settlement system; design has been made more flexible, incorporating ISO 20022 messaging standard
IMF director calls for fiscal expansion in eurozone
Greek attempts to consolidate fiscal position by increasing top tax rates ‘simply not working’, director says
People: ECB names HR director-general; BoE gets new MPC member
ECB appoints new head of human resources; Citigroup economist joins Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee; New York Fed’s chief lawyer to step down after twenty-one years in the role
RBNZ signs up SIA to deliver RTGS replacement
Its subsidiary, Perago, will deliver payments infrastructure for New Zealand via “off-the-shelf” system used by Riksbank and Norges Bank
IMF will consider macro-prudential policies in capital flow ‘stock-take’
Lagarde sheds light on stocktaking exercise that will use Article IVs over past three years to assess how IMF’s guidance on “capital flow management” has worked in practice
New Tunisian central bank law boosts independence and expands mandate
Law governing the Tunisian central bank is amended, with the aim of increasing independence and giving the bank a financial stability role; law drafted by the central bank with IMF assistance
Norway’s NBIM drops first batch of coal investments
Fund excludes 52 coal-related companies from portfolio in first “tranche”, with more planned; measuring exactly which firms fall within boundary proves tricky
Fed’s Brainard highlights potential in distributed ledgers
Policy-makers cannot afford to ignore the possibilities new technology could offer clearing and settlement systems, Lael Brainard says
Asylum seekers at risk of financial exclusion, EBA warns
European countries must ensure asylum seekers are not excluded from financial services by anti-money laundering rules, EBA says; calls on some authorities to take action
Riksbank lays out ideas for macro-prudential overhaul
Executive board accepts many – but not all – recommendations of King and Goodfriend review, and offers some radical ideas of its own
Namibia in process of scrapping assistant governor position for second deputy
Bank of Namibia board to review proposal for legislative changes this month, before submitting it to parliament; assistant governor role vacant for over two years
Embargoed lock-ups scrapped after RBNZ confirms leak
Report says a journalist leaked the March 10 cut to colleagues; Reserve Bank of New Zealand ends practice of allowing media and analysts advance access to rate decisions and major reports