Europe
Visa outage highlights fragility of electronic payments
European network experiences outage for several hours on June 1, due to hardware failure; consumers forced to withdraw cash to make payments
Cash usage in Switzerland below eurozone average – SNB survey
SNB’s first payments study finds 70% of transactions processed in cash in 2017
Dutch government re-appoints Knot as DNB governor and boosts board
Two board members re-appointed and new member for resolution named
People: BoE’s Fried promoted; Vlieghe reappointed
Bradley Fried to take over as Court chair; Gertjan Vlieghe gets new term; Anneli Tuominen to serve additional term at Esma; Israel appoints technology chief
Have central banks created a ‘debt trap’? No, but ...
Tougher regulation has helped ensure extraordinary monetary policy has not caused a dangerous rise in private debt
Italian governor warns country must not abandon EU rules
Former IMF official named as interim prime minister by Italy’s president
ESM should have simpler decision-making process – Olli Rehn
“Reinforced majority” voting would mean quicker reactions in crisis, says incoming Finnish governor
EBA and ECB hit out at capital hurdles to banking union
Top regulators frustrated by push to ring-fence capital and liquidity in EU subsidiaries of EU banks
Nominal exchange rates can be forecast on ‘back of a napkin’ - ECB paper
Flexible exchange rates in advanced countries have two regularities, researchers find
ECB welcomes draft Cyprus law changing governance of central bank
But ECB advises government to resolve confusion over reserve levels
Constancio says EU countries are ‘moving the goalposts’ on risk sharing
ECB vice-president says sovereign bonds should have positive risk weightings
EU Council aims to limit bail-in debt rules
Leaked BRRD text reveals Greek and Portuguese banks could escape subordinated debt regime
Regulatory efficiency or rollback?
Team USA’s new clarion call for regulatory “efficiency” comes with a worrying undertow, particularly related to regulatory rollback and ‘light-touch’ supervision of algorithms
Italian and Spanish sovereign bond yields respond to ECB policy – researcher
Central Bank of Ireland letter says response to ECB announcements impaired during crisis
No reason for public to have central bank accounts – Cœuré
ECB executive board member sees no current need for central bank digital currency, but says it could act as an alternative to cash in future
Draghi renews calls for wider economic union in Europe
ECB head recommends fiscal backstop for resolution fund criticised by German policymakers
Philip Lane on systemic risk, transparency and Brexit
The Central Bank of Ireland governor speaks with Dan Hardie and Chris Jeffery about transparency, shadow banking, ECB succession and tackling systemic banking risk in the eurozone
ECB stresses protectionist risks in economic bulletin
US administration announced plans to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium in March
Sovereign debt crisis caused European firms to cut wages – DNB paper
Researchers say credit stress causes firms to reduce variable parts of wages
Danish regulator sanctions biggest bank for Estonian money laundering
FSA chairman resigns as Estonian regulators fail to comment on allegations
ECB awards $19.6 million treasury contract to Openlink
Central bank says treasury management system is a “mission critical” system; Openlink’s Findur platform will be implemented by 2019
ECB presents ‘red team’ guidelines for simulated cyber attacks
Test will mimic the techniques of real hackers to better understand banks’ cyber defences
SNB governor condemns 'sovereign money initiative'
Thomas Jordan calls on voters to reject proposal for new credit system
Government spending can have low multipliers at ZLB – Bank of Italy paper
Model’s results are in line with recent empirical evidence, researchers say