Central Banking
Incentives needed for e-payment transition
Consumers and merchants need incentives to move from paper-based to electronic payment instruments, said Jan Qvigstad, the deputy governor of Norges Bank.
EU regulators must work together: Swedish deputy
Barbro Wickman-Parak, a deputy director at the Riksbank, has said that the European Union (EU) organisations for supervision and crisis management need to be better coordinated.
Bank's Besley: inflation below target in 2009
Inflation is likely to fall below target next year despite the upward pressure on inflation from the weakening pound, said Timothy Besley, a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee.
RBNZ - November Financial Stability Report
Global market conditions continue to affect the cost and accessibility of offshore funding on which the New Zealand banking system relies, says the latest Reserve Bank of New Zealand's Financial Stability Report.
Euro a solution for currency risk: Hungary's Simor
Euro adoption could help eliminate potentially dangerous currency mismatches, said Andras Simor, the governor of the National Bank of Hungary.
Boston Fed covers global imbalances
The Boston Federal Reserve has published a new e-book on global imbalances.
INTERVIEW: Raghuram Rajan
Raghuram Rajan, a professor at the University of Chicago and a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), talks to CentralBankNews.com about the future role of the Fund.
Bank could have cut by 200bp
Members of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, who shocked markets earlier this month when they slashed rates by 150 basis points, had considered an even bigger cut.
Trichet defends decision to keep minutes secret
Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), has defended the institution's decision to keep details of its monetary policy meetings under wraps, saying the publication of minutes could damage credibility.
Fed's Kohn unconvinced rates should burst bubbles
The Federal Reserve's vice-chair believes it is still wrong for monetary policy to aim at bursting asset price bubbles despite events since last summer.
Kuwait enhances operations to restore liquidity
The Central Bank of Kuwait on Wednesday has launched new open-market operations in a fresh bid to shore up liquidity.
Governors to sit on UN regulatory reform panel
The governors of the Malaysian and Nigerian central banks and a former head of the Reserve Bank of India will form part of a UN task force to look into reform of the global financial system.
Paulson blames lack of time for Tarp u-turn
The US Treasury reneged on its earlier promise to buy banks' distressed assets because it ran out of time, Hank Paulson, the US treasury secretary told Congress on Tuesday.
FSF and IMF agree differentiation of roles
The Financial Stability Forum (FSF) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), two of the most prominent multilateral organisations, have moved to clarify their respective roles to prevent a tussle for greater regulatory power.
Public to blame for inflation: Zimbabwe's Gono
Gideon Gono, the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, has said the public are to blame for the country's bout of hyperinflation.
British inflation dips by record amount
British annual inflation fell to 4.5% in October, down from 5.2% the previous month, on the back of the slump in oil prices. The 0.7 percentage point slide is the biggest since January 1997, when official records began, and since April 1992 based on…
France's Noyer calls for exchange-rate flexibility
The unwinding of global imbalances requires greater flexibility from countries with large current account surpluses and fixed exchange rates, said Christian Noyer, the governor of Banque de France.
IMF's Lipsky: fiscal stimulus required
Global fiscal stimulus of 2% of GDP is required in the current situation, said John Lipsky, the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
Fed's Hoenig wants rules for Wall Street failures
A clear set of rules for handling investment bank bankruptcies is needed, said Thomas Hoenig, the president of the Kansas City Federal Reserve.
RBA justifies November cut
An attempt to reduce the risk of a sharp weakening of demand was behind the Reserve Bank of Australia's cut in the cash rate by 75 basis points to 5.25%, according to minutes of the November meeting.
INTERVIEW: Charles Wyplosz
Charles Wyplosz, a professor at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, and an occasional consultant to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, tells CentralBankNews.com why the Fund cannot play a role in regulating the financial system, why the Paulson…
ECB got it wrong on de-coupling: ex-research head
The European Central Bank was wrong to think the eurozone economies could defy the past and avoid the ill-effects of a recession in the United States, its former head of research has said.
Japan slides into recession, lends IMF $100bn
Japan's economy shrank by 0.4% in the third quarter, surprising analysts who had predicted the country to narrowly avoid a technical recession and grow by 0.1%.
G20 earns plaudits but fails to ease market mood
Markets were nonplussed by the G20 communique with most of the leading stock indices falling in Monday trading.