News/Financial Stability
ECB will move forward with financial integration
A European Central Bank executive board member signalled in comments to the Financial Times, published Friday 29 September, that the ECB will push ahead with plans to increase eurozone financial integration by providing securities settlement services,…
Riyadh to host payment systems conference
A two-day international conference on 'Payment Systems in Saudi Arabia and GCC countries' is to be held in Riyadh from 14 November. The forum will discuss the present mode of electronic access to funds at remote locations and future strategies.
Oman begins automated clearing
Oman's central bank has started its automated clearing house system for handling bulk electronic credit and debit transfers, according to the Oman Daily Observer.
SPEED: the new journal for financial plumbers
SPEED - short for Settlement, Payment, E-money and E-trading Development - is a new journal aimed at all those policy-makers in banks, central banks and system operators who are trying to ensure that the financial infrastructure, often called the …
Securities Settlement Service may cut costs
Costs for securities settlement services could fall as much as 20% if the European Central Bank sets up a single platform in the eurozone, a person familiar with the deliberations told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday 17 August.
SBV strengthens communications, security
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has selected advanced technologies from Cisco Systems to help increase operational efficiencies in its countrywide infrastructure and provide a platform to regulate the banking system.
BOJ steps in after Tokyo blackout
The Bank of Japan began supplying emergency funds Monday 14 August to the interbank market after a blackout halted fund settlements.
Counterfeiters finally crack the Euro note
According to this article published on The New Zealand Herald's website on Wednesday 2 August, the amount of counterfeit currency discovered in the 12 euroland countries is now running at 600,000 notes a year - roughly the same as before the single…
New Zealand's new coins go into circulation
Smaller, lighter 50, 20, and 10 cent coins were released Monday 31 July in New Zealand. The new coins retain the same "heads" and "tails" designs but the 10 cent coin is copper-coloured, the RBNZ said.
ACU calls for new members
The Asian Clearing Union (ACU) concluded its two-day technical committee meeting Wednesday 19 July calling for the admission of countries beyond the ESCAP Asia/Pacific region.
ECB sets Nov 2007 date for TARGET2
The European Central Bank on Friday 21 July confirmed the starting date for its payment system TARGET2 as 19 Nov 2007.
ACU to discuss payment systems efficiency
Members of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) will meet in Dhaka this week to discuss ways to make their payment systems easier to use to boost trade, a Bangladesh central bank official told Reuters.
RBNZ countdown to smaller lighter coins
On 31 July the current 50, 20, and 10 cent coins will be replaced with smaller and lighter coins, and the 5 cent coin will begin to be phased out, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand said on Monday 10 July.
Dutch central bank wants better payment system
The Dutch central bank has called for a more efficient payment system and is considering a set of measures to encourage people to pay more by electronic means, MarketWatch reported.
EU Parliament wants information on SWIFT
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Thursday 6 July asking EU governments, the Commission and the European Central Bank to explain what they know about the SWIFT agreement.
ECB considers new securities settlement service
The European Central Bank said Friday 7 July it is considering setting up a new service for securities settlement in the eurozone. Through the new system, the ECB said it aims for synergies and harmonized settlement of securities transactions in the euro…
Reserve Bank of Fiji chooses LogicaCMG system
The Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF) has contracted with LogicaCMG for the supply and implementation of an interbank real time gross settlement (RTGS) platform.
New global note arrangement for debt securities
The ECB confirmed Monday 12 June that the so-called New Global Note (NGN) arrangement for international debt securities is in compliance with the Eurosystem's Standards for the use of EU securities settlement systems in ESCB credit operations.
Launching of Bloomberg e-bond trading system
With the support of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Primary Dealer community, Wednesday 7 June, Bloomberg officially launched its e-bond trading system in Sri Lanka.
Costa Rica selects OpenLink's Findur
OpenLink, a leading provider of financial and commodity trading, risk management, and operations processing software solutions, announced Monday 5 June that Costa Rica's central bank, Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR), has licensed Findur, the company's…
Liikanen: EU must improve cross-border payments
ECB governing council member Erkki Liikanen said in comments published on Thursday 18 May that the EU must strengthen its payments system.
BoJ names new executive director for operations
The Bank of Japan said Tuesday 9 May that it has promoted Hajime Mizuno, director-general of the BoJ's operations department, to the post of executive director in charge of operations and payment and settlement systems.
Bangladesh Bank can do more on financial stability
The Bangladesh Bank should play its role as a facilitator to all the scheduled banks to overcome any sort of problem they are facing, this opinion piece published Tuesday 9 May says.
Japan discovers misprints in yen notes
Japan's high-tech money-printing bureau was embarrassed on Tuesday 9 May when 39,500 bills were found to be misprinted.