Central Banking
Fed holds rates steady
FOMC points to slowdown in pace of fixed investment
EU offers Iran sanctions relief with new clearing house
Iran retains access to Swift network despite US sanctions, but new clearing house could provide permanent loophole
Too soon for SNB to increase rates, board member says
Inflation is low and currency is strong despite economic growth, Maechler says
Three tricks to remove a troublesome Eurosystem governor
Eurozone authorities have learnt how to circumvent central bank independence – emboldened by feeble action by the European Commission
People: Sri Lanka’s central bank promotes two new deputy governors
Attygalle and Karunarantne become deputy governors, Kilponen to succeed Välimäki at Bank of Finland, IMF promotes representative in Argentina, and more
Riksbank to add Norwegian and Danish krone to reserves portfolio
Change responds to banks’ liquidity requirements in these Scandinavian currencies
Fed proposes further regulatory loosening for small firms
Governor Lael Brainard voted against the last proposed reductions in regulation
Immigrants smooth eurozone labour market shocks – Bank of Italy paper
Non-EU immigrants have higher mobility than Europeans moving between countries – researchers
Bank of Mexico opens second banknote printing plant
Existing facility has reached capacity and cannot keep up with banknote demand, says governor
BoE paper proposes fix for flawed rate expectation estimates
Model augmented with overnight indexed swap rates performs better, author says
ECB nominates Enria as next head of banking supervisor
Italian candidate likely to be accepted as next head of SSM
Basel rules force small countries to face irrelevant risks – Bahamas governor
Stress-testing parameters irrelevant for many small jurisdictions, Rolle says
Iceland hikes rates for first time since 2016
Central bank tightens rates as inflation continues to rise above target
Reducing central bank independence harms economies, Poloz warns
Turkish and Argentinian governments part of “worrying” trend, Canadian governor says
Rajan sees room for disagreement between RBI and government
But former governor says triggering Section 7 would be cause to be “very worried”
Costa Rican central bank hikes rates over inflation fears
Government faces opposition to fiscal reforms as currency slides
Lagarde calls for an end to trade tensions
IMF chief says countries should ‘fix’ global trade system, not ‘destroy’ it
Unconventional policy may reduce bank resilience, BIS paper finds
QE had different effects on “core” and “periphery” eurozone countries, researchers say
Eurozone may be close to potential growth – ECB paper
But all estimates of potential GDP should be treated with caution, researchers argue
Barbados has done ‘reasonably well’ meeting IMF targets, says governor Haynes
Central bank records reserves uptick in latest quarterly review, as government commits to IMF financing targets
Standard-setters can only partially support inclusion – BIS’s da Silva
Standard-setters can balance risks and opportunities, but cannot tackle deeper structural issues
NY Fed economist explores election night volatility
Treasuries suffered dramatic moves as Donald Trump was elected in 2016
Rwanda concerned by high NPL levels despite improvement
Central bank records 6.5% decrease in NPL levels but ratio remains above the 5% benchmark
Chinese banks fail tests as PBoC warns of ‘grey rhino’ risks
Half of banks failed the most severe stress tests; central bank says transition to new economy might unleash unexpected risks