Central Banking
RBI under pressure from alleged banking fraud scandal
Alleged fraudulent transactions uncovered at Punjab National Bank undermine the firm’s capital position; RBI launches investigation into “increasing incidence of frauds”
Post-crisis fiscal cuts boosted solvency without harming liquidity – DNB paper
Dutch paper uses yield spreads to analyse impact of consolidation announcements on investor perception of government solvency
CPMI flags up need for better cross-border payment options
Current infrastructure offers slow and costly transactions that are hard to track, says Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures
People: Nominations to BoJ; Moghalu mulls presidential bid
Kuroda nominated for fresh term alongside two deputies; former CBN deputy considers bid for Nigerian presidency; Riksbank deputy reappointed
Ireland withdraws Lane’s nomination for ECB vice president
Spain’s de Guindos likely to take up role, but Irish may suggest Lane for the chief economist post
Sarb triumphs over public protector in latest ruling
Mkhwebane ordered to pay opponents’ legal costs as judge rules investigation was “unacceptable”; Absa Bank vindicated in latest ruling
BIS paper uses ‘shadow rate’ to study market expectations
Fan Dora Xia and Jing Cynthia Wu find they can estimate expectations over a longer horizon by using a shadow rate term structure model
ECB orders Latvia to shutter bank over laundering allegations
US Treasury alleges the bank laundered billions of dollars and had links to North Korea
Latvian police detain central bank governor on corruption charges
Rimšēvičs says charges are totally unfounded
Reserve managers made financial crisis worse for central banks – paper
Synchronised withdrawal of funds from commercial banks made central bank stabilisation efforts “more difficult”, IMF paper says
Algo trading harmed market during Swiss franc crash – paper
Algorithmic traders tended to “consume liquidity and reinforce the price disruption”
Three men arrested for fraud at Kenya’s central bank
Men charged with 11 counts of fraud attempted to present $6.25 million in counterfeit Treasury bills
Bank of Russia upgrades interbank loan system
The central bank publishes a clutch of documents on financial technology; says hackers stole $6 million via Swift in a “common scheme”
Central banks mull securities lending as response to low yields
Institutions are proving more willing to experiment as conservatism threatens to erode their reserves
NY Fed paper measures global capital flow pressures
The authors’ method allows them to estimate how sensitive countries are to changes in global risk aversion, as well as overcoming problems with capital flow data
Canada effecting a cautious normalisation – deputy governor
Uncertainties related to trade, high debt levels and slower growth may delay new rate hikes
FCA fails to publish contentious report on RBS
Regulator opts to supply parliamentary committee with a confidential version of the report, but lawmakers may publish it anyway
EU should create ‘virtual’ post-Brexit replacement for City of London – Bundesbank official
Future financial centres may not need “physical proximity”, Wuermeling says
Singapore to step up consumer protection on e-payments
Banks must offer users better protection measures, but users could also face fines for recklessness or carelessness
We don’t need cryptocurrencies – former St Louis Fed economist
Current payment infrastructure and physical cash already provide the benefits offered by cryptocurrencies, says Stephen Williamson
FCA to examine feasibility of global regulatory sandbox
UK regulator recommends establishing a “college” of regulators to strengthen co-operation across borders; interested parties have until March to comment
People: Tunisian governor resigns; EFSF appoints chairman
Governor Ayari quits after Tunisian prime minister initiated the process to replace him; EFSF picks new chairman; European Commission proposes new chief for Systemic Risk Board
Sama enables blockchain for cross-border payments
Pilot with Ripple will allow domestic banks to settle payments across the xCurrent network; payments infrastructure based on the Interledger Protocol
Higher inflation in the US pushes up yields
The headline consumer price index rose by 2.1% year on year