United States
Trump administration nominates David Malpass as next World Bank head
Nomination comes despite inaccurate pre-crisis predictions and criticism of global institutions
Balance sheet normalisation has put upward pressure on borrowing costs – Kansas Fed
Levels of reserves still influences borrowing costs despite post-crisis monetary policy framework
Quarles says FSB ‘must evolve’
New chair calls for changes in the way the organisation assesses financial sector threats
Negative rates could have sped up US recovery – San Fran Fed paper
Output gap could have been reduced by as much as half compared to actual figures, researcher says
Unconventional policy should be used rapidly – Fed paper
Researchers find 20–50% chance that US will face zero lower bound in next decade
Powell joins Trump for dinner at the White House
Fed puts out statement, as meeting follows regular criticism of the Fed’s interest rate path from the president
Fed’s 2019 stress tests to assume largest unemployment shock to date
Central bank also announces moves to enhance transparency in its stress-testing programme
New York Fed to help Bangladesh Bank chase down stolen funds
Two years on from the heist, the organisations have signed a “technical assistance” agreement
Chilean central bank hikes rates
Rate rise comes despite US Fed holding rates on January 30
Leverage increasing among large shared loans in US, regulators warn
Fed, FDIC and OCC say lenders are relying on borrowers’ “savings and synergies”
Fed takes dovish stance as it clarifies long-run monetary policy
New statement seeks to clarify Fed’s balance sheet normalisation strategy
Euro outpacing dollar as cross-border credit grows
Latest BIS statistics show widening gap between credit growth in the two major currencies
Fed to open dialogue on stress tests
Conference will discuss the “transparency and effectiveness” of the stress tests
People: Mexico appoints two new deputy governors
Federal Reserve appoints new research director and IADB makes Chilean official chief economist
Economics in central banking: Greg Kaplan, Benjamin Moll and Gianluca Violante
Authors’ paper, ‘Monetary policy according to Hank’, boosts the realism of core economic models, delivering important insights into inequality and the transmission of monetary policy
Second round of 2019 Central Banking awards winners revealed
Winners include Warren Coats, St Louis Fed, Bank of Israel, RBA and National Bank of Ukraine
Tighter US capital ratios eased inequality – Bundesbank paper
Richer households’ incomes fell while Fed’s easing cushioned effects on middle and low earners
Paper proposes ‘re-engineering’ US statistics
System for compiling statistics is dated and overly complex, authors say
Fed launches banknote app for children
App provides details of security features, mimicking raised intaglio print through vibrations
Establishing the Fed worsened the Great Depression – St Louis Fed paper
Setting up lender of last resort reduced banks’ incentive to manage risk, paper argues
Asset manager of the year: State Street Global Advisors
The US financial group used its global presence, and equity and fixed income expertise, to expand its central bank client base and assets under management in 2018
BoE’s leveraged loan research draws interest from overseas
UK exposures are modest but firms in US and Japan have bigger holdings of CLOs, which carry echoes of the subprime mortgage crisis
Low US unemployment unlikely to foster sudden wage growth – research
Fed projections see unemployment rate falling to 3.5% by the end of 2019
Fed diversity is focus of new legislation
New bill would ensure at least one gender- and one ethnically-diverse candidate are interviewed for vacant president roles