Central Banking
Monies contain embedded options
The face values of all notes and coins contain embedded options, argues a new paper written by Espen Gaarder Haug and John Stevenson, two quantitative-finance analysts.
G20 working group: amend Bretton Woods governance
Emerging and developing economies should have greater voice and representation in Bretton Woods institutions, says a report from a working group prepared for the G20 London summit.
Pyramid firms have more debt
Controlling shareholders in pyramid firms, a structure where an ultimate owner uses indirect ownership to maintain control over a large group of companies, use debt to secure their private benefits, new research from the Bank of Canada posits.
Crisis highlights shortfalls in UK payments: BoE
The financial crisis has uncovered uncertainties and knowledge gaps among market participants in the United Kingdom's payment and settlement infrastructure, the Bank of England said on Tuesday.
Bank of England holds on quantitative easing
The Bank of England has opted to wait and see what impact its quantitative easing programme is having before pledging a further boost to the money supply.
Bernanke: emergency aid will be repaid
The Federal Reserve's support facilities for specific institutions carry more risk than traditional central bank liquidity support, but we nevertheless expect to be fully repaid, said Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the central bank.
G20 group: more supervisory colleges needed
Regulators should collaborate to establish supervisory colleges for all major cross-border financial institutions, says a report from a working group prepared for the G20 London summit.
ECB Monthly Bulletin: April 09
The flow of loans to non-financial corporations and households has remained very subdued, says the latest Monthly Bulletin from the European Central Bank.
FOMC views differ on scale of asset purchases
Senior Federal Reserve officials disagree on the amount of Treasuries and mortgage-agency debt the central bank should buy, minutes of the last Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) show.
Crisis undermines our models: new SNB official
Jean-Pierre Danthine, an academic who is set to join the Swiss National Bank's (SNB) board in 2010, has said that the crisis demands a fundamental rethink of the economic models used by central bankers.
Czechs name new communications head
Marek Petrus, now head of research at the Prague office of Egon Zehnder, a consultancy, is to take over from Pavlina Bolfova as the Czech National Bank's communications head at the start of next month.
Nigeria cuts for first time in seven months
The Central Bank of Nigeria sliced 175 basis points off its key interest rate on Thursday with the scarcity of credit outweighing concerns over inflation.
REVIEW: Central Banking in a Free Society
The crisis has shown the need for privately-owned central banks, says Tim Congdon, a monetary economist, in a new book.
Iceland cuts by 150 basis points
The Central Bank of Iceland cut its policy rate by one and half basis points to 15.5% on Wednesday, the second cut in less than a month.
Bernanke, Dudley justify Talf
Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, and William Dudley, the president of the New York Fed, moved to temper fears among lawmakers that the central bank's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (Talf) puts taxpayers' money at risk.
ECB's Bini Smaghi: central banks' teamwork unique
The level of trust and cooperation within the central-banking community has increased significantly during the crisis, said Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, a member of the European Central Bank's executive board.
Hildebrand named new Swiss National Bank head
Philipp Hildebrand, the vice-chairman of the board of governors at the Swiss National Bank, will take over from Jean-Pierre Roth as chairman of the board at the start of next year.
Fisher hints at new anti-inflation tools for Fed
Richard Fisher, the president of the Dallas Federal Reserve, gave the clearest signal yet that the central bank will soon be handed new tools to counter the inflationary impact of its crisis-fighting measures.
UK opposition moots change to BoE price target
Britain's main opposition party has indicated that it will review the Bank of England's inflation target if it comes to power.
Spain's Ordoez: politics is costly
Involving savings banks in the political debate makes it immensely difficult to find flexible and effective solutions, said Miguel Ordoez, the governor of the Bank of Spain.
G20 working group: global coordination key
International regulatory standards should be coordinated to ensure a common and coherent global framework, says a report from a working group prepared for the G20 London summit.
ECB's policy rule does not fit all
Euro policy rates best fit the largest eurozone members, research from the Bank of Finland posits.
IMF: toxic-debt bill to hit $4 trillion - report
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is allegedly set to release new forecasts showing the cost of writedowns could reach $4 trillion, a leading British newspaper has reported.
Renminbi should be added to SDR basket: Mundell
Robert Mundell, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, has called for the International Monetary Fund to add the renminbi to the list of currencies represented in its special-drawing-rights (SDRs) basket.