Opinion
FX traders to kiss goodbye to settlement risk
FEATURE - Currency traders, more aware of the potential for disruption in the financial system after September 11, should draw comfort from a long-awaited settlement system linked to central banks that is due to go live this year.
Japan lawmaker says BOJ chief not worth his salt
FEATURE - Is a central bank governor who has been unable to halt a three-year decline in prices or prevent the longest recession in decades worth his salt - particularly when his paycheck is 38.43 million yen ($293,000) a year?
Changing the guard on the Bank of England's MPC
FEATURE - The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee is about to embark on its most radical shake-up since it was set up five years ago. Five of its nine members - including the Governor and his two deputies - will either be replaced or have their…
Thin skin - Don't mess with Buba
FEATURE - The upcoming German elections appear to have put German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in a foul and vindictive mood. Some months ago, there was the chancellor's surprisingly undiplomatic "How Dare You" response to Brussels' warning that Germany…
Interview with a regulator
FEATURE - Interview with Jeremy Cox, Supervisor of Insurance, Bermuda Monetary Authority. Originally published in the Asia Insurance Review on Monday.
When an ATM is an alien concept
FEATURE - It is only an ATM (automatic teller machine), but it might as well be an alien spacecraft, crash landed in central Vientiane. People do not know what to make of it - which is understandable when you consider that this is the first ATM in Laos.
Brazil's central bank - a question of independence
FEATURE - Brazil's central bank president, Arminio Fraga, may appear the only sure thing in Brasilia these days as election fever grips the capital of South America's number one economy. But the question to be asked is, for how long?
Bank's inner circle and its Outer Mongolia
FEATURE - The Bank of England is the City's Kremlin. From time to time figures appear on the balcony above its windowless walls, and the watchers must try to calculate whose stock is up and who has been posted to Outer Mongolia. There is no doubt that…
Greenspan's heir apparent stays cryptic
FEATURE - Judging by his refusal to provide a direct answer to a straightforward question, John Taylor is on track to become the next chairman of the US Federal Reserve writes Stephen Romei in The Australian on Monday.
Wim's wait
FEATURE - The European Central Bank is extending its "wait and see" policy from interest rates to the equally delicate matter of high-level appointments, reported Friday's FT in London.
IRAQ - Monetary analysis
IRAQ - The Central Bank of Iraq operates directly under the instruction of the government. As its activities are rather opaque, any analysis of policy is somewhat speculative, reports Quest Economics Database 27 March.
The recession that almost was
FEATURE - It is easy to dismiss the recent global downturn as a false alarm but policymakers should learn from it, says Kenneth Rogoff in Friday's Financial Times.
ECB's French connection is still fuzzy
FEATURE - The next president of the European Central Bank will be a Frenchman, but the question is: Which one?, asks the Wall Street Journal, 3 April.
The big problem of small change
FEATURE - It is a curious fact, writes Paul Podolsky in Thursday's Wall Street Journal Europe, that the world's most trusted currency, the dollar, represents a claim on an asset no more tangible than the faith of the U.S. government. The same is true for…
Expansion of Japanese broad money supply
LETTER - In a letter published in Thursday's Financial Times a chief economist explains how the Japanese money supply is increasing through commercial banks buying of government debt as a result of low demand for loans.
Keep floating, stop worrying
FEATURE - The real case for an independent pound has nothing to do with ultra-nationalism or hostility to Europe writes Samuel Brittan in Thursday's Financial Times. He suggests the British government allow use of the euro as a parallel currency and…
Central bank still basking in Communism
FEATURE - In Russia, "independence" is usually understood as the right to act with impunity and "control" as state intervention. These peculiarities of our national perception of reality were fully in evidence during the recent skirmish over the…
Pakistan work to establish modern financial system
FEATURE - As Afghanistan rebuilds, industrialized nations around the world are paying close attention to attempts by neighboring Pakistan to modernize its financial system, reports Nikkei Weekly.
Russia's new central banker in TV interview
FEATURE - Bank deposits in Russia should be at least partially guaranteed by the state. In return, the banks should submit to tighter supervision and higher standards, which will increase public confidence in Russia's banks, the new chairman of Russia's…
Phasing out the euro with e-money
FEATURE - Now that the physical euro has been successfully introduced, it is time to press ahead with the next phase - getting rid of the physical euro.
The long and short of it for central banks
FEATURE - Never mind the question about when and how far they should follow the US FOMC. Asian central banks have their hands full at the long end of the curve at the moment.
The increasingly transparent Greenspan fed
FEATURE - Tuesday's decision by the Federal Open Market Committee that it would announce the roll call of the vote on the federal funds rate target, including the policy choice of any dissenters after each meeting, was the latest veil in its legendary…
Banks face loyalty dilemma
FEATURE - With all the fuss about terrorist finance, it's sometimes easy to forget that the argument about how to track dirty money is a very old one indeed.
Russia's new central bank chief
FEATURE - Promising little change to exchange-rate policy but progress on stalled banking change, Sergei Ignatyev was overwhelmingly elected Russia's Central Bank chief Wednesday by the lower house of parliament.