Opinion/Financial Stability
Clearing risks
ARTICLE - Following the publication of the G30 report last week this article describes the report as both wise and practical and it will serve as a road map that the many actors from the private and public sectors can use to reach the common destination…
Iraq's central bank governor details new bank note
ARTICLE - Iraq's central bank Governor Dr Isam Rashid Huwaysh has explained the bank's decision to issue a 10,000-dinar banknote, in an interview with the Al-Rafidayn web site.
Sovereign bankruptcy: an opinion Jean-Jacques Rey
Jean-Jacques Rey welcomes Anne Krueger’s proposals for a sovereign debt restructuring mechanism. But is it a dead-end or promising avenue?
Loyalty not on RBA cards
FEATURE - Ian Macfarlane and his Reserve Bank appear set on making their proposed changes to the open card schemes, Bankcard, Mastercard and Visa, by the end of the year, regardless of the growing belief the "reforms" will harm the people the central…
New £5 coin would make more sense
LETTER - A letter published in the London edition of the Financial Times on 28 May.
Charting an ongoing evolution of e-payments
FEATURE - In her 32 years with the Federal Reserve System, Cathy E. Minehan, the president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, has heard plenty of talk about the paperless society.
UK at forefront of global card fraud prevention
FEATURE - Letter published in the Financial Times, 3 May, from Chris Pearson, Association for Payment Clearing Services, London.
Debating and preparing for the Payments Future
FEATURE - In a rare set of predictions on how the U.S. payments system's transaction mix will evolve, The Nilson Report in the American Banker says that in about 10 years debit cards will overtake credit cards, cash will remain king, and paper checks…
Back from a King's vault, the lone double eagle
FEATURE - It is a $20 gold piece from 1933 that was ordered destroyed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Stolen from the United States Mint, it was exported for a king after the government committed the bumble of all bumbles, was contested in an…
When an ATM is an alien concept
FEATURE - It is only an ATM (automatic teller machine), but it might as well be an alien spacecraft, crash landed in central Vientiane. People do not know what to make of it - which is understandable when you consider that this is the first ATM in Laos.
The big problem of small change
FEATURE - It is a curious fact, writes Paul Podolsky in Thursday's Wall Street Journal Europe, that the world's most trusted currency, the dollar, represents a claim on an asset no more tangible than the faith of the U.S. government. The same is true for…
Phasing out the euro with e-money
FEATURE - Now that the physical euro has been successfully introduced, it is time to press ahead with the next phase - getting rid of the physical euro.
France bids tearless farewell to franc
FEATURE - After 650 years of history, the franc disappears this weekend with about as much ceremony as the muttered address at the funeral of a forgotten relative.
Euro launch reaches its final phase
ARTICLE - Securitas GmbH, a German armoured-car company, has suffered only a few mishaps since it began hauling the new euro cash in September. Some workers threw out their backs lugging the 20-kilo sacks of coins. Others accidentally dropped the heavy…
The future of online banking
ARTICLE - A letter published in the Financial Times London edition, 31 October, comments on a previous feature the paper reported on the outlook for online banking.
EU want equality of charges for payments
ARTICLE - EC news release, 25 July, Commission proposes principle of equality of charges for domestic payments and cross-border payments in euros.
Bank Indonesia Real Time Gross Settlement BI-RTGS
ARTICLE - Bank Indonesia began operating a Real Time Gross Settlement system in Bandung area on 5 June. With this system, inter-bank payments are settled in real time where the participant bank's accounts can be debited/credited several times per day.
CLS Bank may reduce foreign exchange risk
ARTICLE - The Economist magazine reports in its Apr 14 edition on the introduction of a new financial institution later in 2001 which is designed to reduce the risk of a crisis in foreign exchange payments.
Emoney and central banking- International Finance
The academic journal International Finance edited by Benn Steil has a special feature about whether information technology and electronic money will mean the end of central banking. Authors include Charles Goodhart and Michael Woodford. Also in the issue…
Mains points of CBBH strategic plan for 2001
The Central Bank of Bosnia & Herzegovina publish a monthly newsletter about activities and news at the central bank. Below is one of the articles which summarises the mains points of CBBH strategic plan for 2001.
Principles for financial plumbers
Payment systems, the "plumbing" underpinning international capital markets, aretoo often ignored. John Trundle from the Bank of England, who recently helpeddevise new standards for payment system safety, explains what changes areneeded in the latest…
Farewell to Wendelin at Bundesbank
Wendelin Hartmann is presented with a special issue of a German banking journal to commemorate many years service at the Bundesbank and as chairman of the Committe on Payment and Settlement Systems at the BIS.