Central Banking
Israel must close productivity gap, Flug says
Bank of Israel governor calls on government to work on closing gap with advanced economies, which could boost living standards by a third, she says
Norway’s Olsen plans to seek reappointment
Norges Bank governor says he plans to seek a second term, as government launches public application process for position
Malaysian deputy tells companies to provide ‘more than just a payment solution’
Muhammad bin Ibrahim stresses importance of financial institutions providing “value-added services” to their customers if they are to remain competitive
Chicago and Cleveland Fed presidents back gradual path for rate increases
Charles Evans is “comfortable” with tightening implied by latest round of dot plots; he and Loretta Mester spell out outlooks for growth and inflation and risks surrounding them
Europe set for new Greek clash as Lagarde hits back over leaks
IMF chief has sharp words for the Greek prime minister after staff phone conversation is posted online by Wikileaks; debt relief remains a major sticking point as July repayment looms
Fibre optics raise concentration of forex trading - paper
Barry Eichengreen and co-authors find technological gains from submarine fibre optic cables helped increase the concentration of foreign exchange trading
Tax system severely reduces Italian banks’ profits – paper
Disparities in eurozone countries’ effective tax rates for their banking sectors may threaten banks’ ability to strengthen their capital, a Bank of Italy paper argues
Basel Committee flags further issues with bank modelling
Second study of variation in credit risk modelling using internal ratings-based approach sheds further light on what is causing banks to calculate significantly different capital requirements
Central bank gold purchases near record levels
World Gold Council argues negative interest rates make gold a favourable asset, but Thomson Reuters team sees other factors at play
Maechler says SNB plans to wield hefty balance sheet to encourage good governance
Swiss National Bank’s balance sheet has ballooned following currency interventions, leading to the question of what to do with the newly acquired assets
Redesigned digital currency could keep central banks in control
Researchers at UCL launch “RSCoin” idea, highlighting its superiority over bitcoin; new digital currency framework would be controlled by central banks
Dudley hits back at plans to curb Fed discretion
New York Fed chief says plans to force Fed to follow a monetary policy rule would lead to “significant policy errors”; supports transparency, but within bounds
MAS and BoJ announce fintech push
Singaporean and Japanese central banks establish centres aimed at developing hyped sector; describe monetary authorities as ideal "catalysts" for technological development
Ghana governor steps down four months early
Bank of Ghana governor has stepped down over four months early; retirement date due to “long outstanding leave days”, central bank says
Hungarian constitutional court strikes down central bank law
Hungary’s two highest courts rule that a law limiting the disclosure of information on central bank assets is unlawful and unconstitutional
Canadian economy may find ‘new balance’ at lower potential growth, Patterson says
Hit to the commodities sector likely to have knock-on effects, lowering broader investment and harming potential growth, deputy governor warns
FRTB data standards seen as threat to emerging markets
Need for "real" prices will limit use of models, increasing capital burden
UK mint starts production of ‘ground-breaking’ pound coins
Elements from the emblems of all four UK nations will feature on reverse of the coin; details of certain counterfeiting features revealed
Riksbank paper finds BVAR models can outperform DSGE
Bayesian vector autoregressions often produce better forecasts than judgement-based or DSGE-based options, authors find – but DSGE is still more popular for policy-making
Policy-makers could use fraud patterns as economic indicator – paper
Positive relationship exists between bank fraud and the macroeconomy, Chicago Fed risk specialist finds, suggesting fraud could offer an early warning sign of crisis
FSB intrigued by potential uses of distributed ledgers
Mark Carney says FSB members see ‘exciting opportunities’ in financial technology, including the potential for distributed ledgers to bring security and efficiency
Italian firms' leverage well above average, study finds
Italian non-financial companies’ leverage ratios are significantly above the eurozone average, a working paper shows
People: Bank Negara reappoints deputy; State Bank of Pakistan revamps board
Sukudhew Singh will serve another three years as deputy; Pakistan appoints new board members
Latin American countries may be especially exposed to US monetary policy, paper finds
These economies may be more vulnerable than most emerging markets to the normalisation of US monetary policy, claims a Bank of Spain paper