News
China to drop dollar peg “sooner or later”: Zhou
Chinese central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan hints the country will soon remove the dollar peg on its currency, analysts see a slow and steady revaluation rather than large one-off move
Noyer to chair BIS board
Banque de France governor succeeds Guillermo Ortiz as chairman of Bank for International Settlements’ board
Brussels and Paris push for European monetary fund
Finance ministries of France and Germany begin devising proposals for Europe’s own Fund, body would be geared at removing bailout security net as well as providing help to euro countries
Gudmundsson confident of Icesave deal despite country’s ‘no’ vote
Icelandic central bank governor Már Gudmundsson says a resolution will be reached with British and Dutch governments soon despite massive wave of public opposition to the plan
Volcker lambasts higher inflation targets
Former Fed chairman Paul Volcker calls the suggestion that inflation targets should be raised to about 4% “nonsense”; points to the difficulties of the 1980s
Canada to switch to polymer
Bank of Canada to issue plastic notes in 2011
Hildebrand, Weber condemn calls for higher inflation targets
Swiss and German central bank heads label IMF chief economist’s argument “seriously flawed”; deem timing “highly unfortunate”
Bank begins consultation on note circulation
Bank of England in talks with commercial cash industry on proposal to better distribute lowest denomination note
ECB surplus drops more than 16%
European Central Bank reports a €2.218 billion surplus, and a €2.25 billion profit, pinning fall in interest income to low rates on dollar assets
Norway’s wealth fund smashes profit record
Norway’s Government Pension Fund–Global sees a 25.6% return on its investments for 2009, trumping the benchmark portfolio by more than four percentage points
Swiss stabfund losses wipe out UBS equity
Revaluation wipes more than $5.6 billion off the value of SNB’s toxic-asset portfolio
We won’t ban prop trading: British Lord
British business secretary Peter Mandelson says Volcker rule is “too difficult” even as Washington works to turn it into law
Argentine Senate set to reject governor
Central bank set to be leaderless again after committee vote against Fernández ally
Norges Bank sees $1.28 billion loss
Norwegian central bank says deficit the result of the appreciation of its currency; cannot transfer funds to the country’s Treasury as a result
Malaysia hikes as recession ends in emerging Asia
Bank Negara Malaysia raises its key rate by a quarter percentage point, citing stronger than forecast growth results in emerging Asia
Lawmakers clash over Fed role in consumer protection
Senior Democrats infuriated over possible revision to regulatory reform bill that would keep consumer protection under the Fed, against original promise
Austria’s Nowotny: power of rating agencies unacceptable
National Bank of Austria’s Ewald Nowotny says agencies’ role in fate of Greece too great
Fed’s Fisher: break up the big banks
Dallas Federal Reserve’s president gets tough on those deemed too big to fail
Greece not looking to bond markets for now: debt chief
Greece’s new head of public debt management says the country will not rush to tap sovereign debt markets; austerity package with extra cuts sends yields plummeting
Nigeria slashes deposit rate to ease lending
Central Bank of Nigeria knocks 100 bps off deposit rate and extends quantitative easing programme to promote lending to the real sector
Fernández’s central bank raid finally succeeds
Hours after admitting defeat on emergency decree, President Fernández plunders central banks reserves through new measures
China moots legalising some private lenders
A director-general of the People’s Bank of China says the central bank is in favour of lifting rate caps and legalising some micro-lenders
Philadelphia Fed appoints new VPs
Central bank shifts roles after senior vice president Richard Lang announces decision to step down
Australia hikes on further evidence of recovery
Reserve Bank of Australia raises cash rate to 4% as Stevens says economy in the clear