Central Banking
People’s Bank of China promotes assistant governor
People’s Bank of China bulks up senior management team; adding second new deputy governor in as many months
IMF urges UK to take further measures to promote growth
Staff report on UK Article IV Consultation urges policy-makers to act in order to boost ‘flat’ economy; says fiscal tightening may need to be eased next year
Central Bank of Barbados challenges rating downgrade
S&P lowers Barbados’s sovereign credit rating triggering angry response from central bank; says it is ‘manifestly’ not the case that debt risk has increased
Mersch gets green light from ECB to join executive board
European Central Bank’s governing council delivers opinion on appointment of Luxembourg candidate to top board; process of Yves Mersch’s selection still far from complete
RBI shuns foreign investors and derivatives in favour of structural ALM, says former deputy governor
Shyamala Gopinath believes market structure and regulation can be used to create ‘natural’ asset and liability management; approach is superior to managing risks with financial hedges
New Zealand selects new central bank board member
Finance minister appoints academic as board member at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand; brings group to maximum capacity
Central Bank of Chile paper finds benefits to financial exclusion
Working paper studies welfare in countries with currency pegs when access to external financial markets is restricted; finds closing capital account can increase household welfare
BoE reports mixed credit conditions
Bank of England’s quarterly ‘Trends in Lending’ shows lending to UK businesses contracted but consumer credit flows rose over the second quarter of 2012
Central Bank of Kenya chief promotes monetary union
Njuguna Ndung’u calls on Kenya Institute of Bankers to design training to meet the needs of a ‘dynamic regionally integrated financial sector’ ahead of monetary union in East Africa
Fed’s Beige Book reports continued moderate growth
Survey of economic conditions in Fed districts find ‘modest to moderate’ growth in June and early July; respondents ‘cautiously optimistic’ about outlook
Ecuadorian governor injured during bullfight
Pedro Delgado suffers severe ankle injury at a bullfight; was immediately hospitalised following the incident at a ranch near Machachi
Former Bank of England MPC member blasts QE dissenters
David Blanchflower says Spencer Dale and Ben Broadbent were 'on another planet' when they voted against an increase to the asset purchase programme; minutes of July MPC meeting show 7:2 split
Spanish governor admits central bank’s failings
Luis Linde addresses past errors made by the Bank of Spain with regard to supervision of the financial system; says hindsight would mean a different approach to counter-cyclical provisioning
National Bank of Serbia governor refuses to resign
Dejan Šoškić’s governorship allegedly under threat from new Serbian government; defends position saying 'there is no reason for me to resign'
Eurozone crisis at 'critical' stage, says IMF
International Monetary Fund stresses need for completion of monetary union and sets out three vital common elements to create banking union; ECB’s Asmussen echoes thoughts on vital need for union
BIS paper argues financial systems can grow too large
Working paper examines impact of size of financial systems on productivity growth; finds size of financial sector initially boosts productivity but beyond certain threshold has negative effect
RBA minutes show cautious optimism
Minutes of Reserve Bank of Australia’s July monetary policy meeting note strong growth in domestic economy and signs of external recovery despite weakened growth in US, Europe and China
Bank of Finland paper analyses Chinese monetary policy
Discussion paper assesses the use of non-market monetary policy in China; finds policy tools are effective at controlling inflation but this depends on source of economic shocks
BoJ minutes reveal unanimous vote for rate hold
Minutes of Bank of Japan’s June monetary policy meeting show unanimous support for rate hold; say deflation a 'critical challenge'
Bank of Canada holds rates steady
Governing council decides to keep benchmark rate at 1%; says modest tightening of monetary policy may be justified if recovery continues
Bernanke blames Europe and fiscal cliff for stalling recovery
Chairman of the Federal Reserve says two main risks to economic improvement in the US are eurozone woes and looming fiscal cliff; urges lawmakers to act promptly
Bank of Israel unveils proposals to increase banking competition
Interim report sets out numerous measures to increase competition in Israel’s banking sector; says banking suffers from high concentration and low efficiency
Bangladesh Bank chief highlights efforts to encourage entrepreneurs
Atiur Rahman discusses role of central bank in promoting financial inclusion of micro and small and medium enterprises; says poverty has seen 'sharp' decline
NY Fed failed to share Libor low-balling fears with BoE, says King
Governor of the Bank of England says NY Fed did not pass on anecdotal evidence of Barclays’ manipulation of Libor submissions; says recommendations for reform were not a warning of trouble