Central Banking
$500 billion reserve drain made crisis worse: IMF’s Ferhani
Deputy director says IMF research shows central bank reserve managers withdrew $500 billion from deposits at commercial banks during crisis
Gold could play solid stability role
World Gold Council's George Milling-Stanley pushes for Basel III and SDR to be gold plated
Russian central bank “lacks capacity” to handle assets
Russian sovereign fund management chief says new agency will take debt and asset responsibilities over from central bank, Russian reserve stash severely depleted by financial crisis
Norges Bank director pushes for better pricing of risk
Norges Bank director Arlid Lund discusses how to prevent the next crisis and where the risks lie
Central banks, not debt will kill growth: economist
Independent economist Roger Nightingale charges that debt on its own is not incompatible with growth, but raising rates will kill growth
Fed: credit availability increases among consumers
Federal Reserve director discusses developments in credit scoring study with Congress
IMF calls for originators to have more exposure to tranches
Study shows that exposure to securitised loans does not imply risk-neutral behaviour
Turkey tests new policy on checking accounts
Study by Turkish central bank rejects new policy to increase payment fees for checking accounts
Fed: macro models ignored lower bound of yield curve
San Francisco Fed constructs an augmented version of macro-finance model following financial crisis
ECB in about-turn on collateral rules
Move reflects concern over Greece; Trichet says graded haircut system set to be introduced
UK debt management official parries demand fears
Co-head of policy and markets says she is confident that market for gilts deep and liquid enough to withstand end of QE
Fed’s Kohn attacks higher inflation targets
Federal Reserve vice chairman also dismissive of price-level targeting; admits central bankers were “a little complacent” pre-crisis
Emerging markets will overhaul reserve methods: Thai deputy
Bank of Thailand vice governor Atchana Waiquamdee says crisis has rendered traditional measures of reserve adequacy “meaningless” for cautious emerging markets
Sovereign risk worries overstated: panel
Debt experts from Bank of Italy, National Bank of Denmark and French debt agency point to reassuring signs of continuing life in the sovereign debt markets
Fed: smaller optimal weight should be placed on rental price inflation
San Francisco Fed paper suggests that nature of rental prices warrants change in the way inflation is measured
Turkish study shows economic impact of oil shocks
Central Bank of Turkey paper shows that oil prices have similar impact both globally and on small oil-importing economy
Bank explains UK housing bubble
Bank of England study links rising house prices to lower real long-term rates and lower inflation in the run up to the bubble
Yellen: Fed won’t inflate debt away
San Francisco Fed’s Janet Yellen tells LA town hall inflation will not run rampant so long as Fed retains independence
The end is nigh for the eurozone over Greece
Economists Geoffrey Wood and Charles Dumas say the Greek debt crisis is set to tear asunder Europe’s poorly built Economic and Monetary Union, split over IMF bailout
Italy’s Draghi favours “enforcement” over European Fund
Bank of Italy governor Mario Draghi says a new pact should be drawn up to enforce fiscal discipline, rather than building a continental version of the IMF
Portugal suffers downgrade
Sovereign debt marked down a notch by Fitch; move eaxcerbates eurozone tensions
IMF calls for Zimbabwe to scrap governing board
Fund acknowledges success of multi-currency regime at close of Article IV consultation
Chiang Mai currency swap deal comes to life
Regional $120 billion currency swap arrangement between ASEAN members and east Asian powerhouses comes into force
Euro should not covet reserve role
Panellists in CentralBanking.com web seminar say becoming a reserve currency would hamper recovery