Central Banking
Republican lawmakers seek curbs on Fed’s emergency facilities
Treasury backs lawmakers in bid to insert wording to bar Fed from restarting Covid loan programmes
Bank of Mexico holds rates as board splits
Change to rate-setting board’s make-up may herald change in policy stance, say observers
Cuba ends dual-currency regime
Communist regime to merge convertible and domestic peso in major economic reform
Fed’s dollar swap lines and ‘Fima’ facility to run nine more months
FOMC keeps main policy tools on hold, but shifts guidance on asset purchases
BoE’s MPC says UK outlook is ‘unusually uncertain’
Outcome of Brexit talks and evolution of pandemic leave future cloudy, BoE says
Fed faces longer-term challenges under new policy strategy
Steve Kamin warns central bank may not have paid enough attention to why r* has fallen
US brands Switzerland a ‘currency manipulator’
Treasury also accuses Vietnam of manipulating exchange rate to gain “unfair competitive advantage”
Divided Libyan central bank holds peace meeting
Central bank’s first board meeting in five years agrees single exchange rate for war-torn country
ECB establishes tough conditions for banks to resume dividends
Dividends must remain below 15% of cumulative profits in 2019-20 and not higher than 0.2% of CET1 ratio
Non-banks continue to eat into banks’ market share
FSB monitoring finds patterns of links between banks and non-banks are changing
FCA fails to register crypto asset firms by cut-off
Regulator establishes temporary registration regime for firms which submitted an application on time
A ‘love-hate’ relationship with ESG screens
ESG screens seen as a first step in adopting sustainable investment practices, so why do so few central banks use them?
Federal Reserve joins NGFS
Seven other organisations join as Trump defeat frees Fed to join green network
Carstens reveals details of ‘Rio’ high-speed data project
BIS chief unveils push for central bankers to innovate and rethink the way they collaborate
IMF’s Adrian weighs balance between stimulus and stability
Central banks need to incorporate macro-financial stability in decision-making processes, he says
House price consideration could be added to mandate – RBNZ’s Orr
New Zealand’s governor argues house prices are not the remit of monetary policy
Loans to SMEs should have lower capital requirements – BdF paper
More SME lending boosts banks’ portfolio diversity and decreases systemic risk exposure, paper finds
Maltese ex-finance minister becomes governor despite political dispute
Opposition alleges Edward Scicluna is “bad choice” but Labour government dismisses claims
Bank of Israel to offer repos to non-bank credit providers
Measure is a bid to foster competition, and lower households and firms' financing costs
Quarles: Fed’s supervision should evolve
Fed vice-chair says supervision has not been adequately scrutinised in the past
China’s digital yuan kicks off test on e-commerce platforms
New round of tests in Suzhou allow use of CBDC for online shopping for the first time; new features designed to protect privacy
New Isda ‘fallbacks’ critical to making Libor transition a ‘non-event’
New protocol and supplement offer a transition away from Libor rates in 2021, despite CFTC saying 2,400 companies still exposed and Fed extending some US libor contracts until mid-2023
CBDC could give consumers power over their data – paper
Mere existence of CBDC could discipline data-hungry payments firms, authors say
ECB adds crucial tweak that could limit PEPP purchases
Hawkish governors secured wording that bond-buying allocation “need not be used in full”