Opinion/Regulation
Bangladesh Bank's failure to handle problem-banks
According to this opinion piece from The New Nation, published Friday 6 October, investigation will lead to the conclusion that to a large extent Bangladesh Bank is responsible for the bankruptcy of the Oriental Bank Ltd.
Autonomous eye should watch over MFIs, banks
According to this article from The East African Standard, published Tuesday 26 September, although the Central Bank of Kenya will get new regulatory and supervisory powers under the Micro-Finance Bill, little things like this can slip through the cracks.
Kosovo revamps banking system to bolster economy
This article published by VOA on Saturday 23 September says that the move to transform the Banking and Payments Authority of Kosovo into a central bank will provide more independence and regulatory authority to Kosovo's new banking system.
The hunt for Balcerowicz
According to this article published by the Warsaw Business Journal on Monday 18 September, any notion of central bank independence in Poland will soon be banished.
Russian central banker died with job unfinished
According to this article from Reuters published Thursday 14 September, Russia has lost a crusading reformer with the death of Andrei Kozlov, who made a promising start to cleaning up Russia's banking system.
A contrasting tale of two central bankers
According to the article "From Poland to Japan: a contrasting tale of two central bankers" from The Japan Times, published Monday 7 August, Poland's new leaders look set to concentrate the entire spectrum of financial supervisory powers in the prime…
Comment: Fukui's gaffe
Bank of Japan governor, Toshihiko Fukui, faces an uncertain future following his admission of a supposedly unethical investment. Even though prime minister Junichiro Koizumi immediately jumped to Fukui's defence, pundits are already saying the incident…
Comment: A 'new multilateral approach'
The weekend's announcement of an enhanced IMF role in "multilateral surveillance and consultation" is an important conceptual shift in the way the Fund operates. It is also the closest leading economic leaders have come to acknowledging that global…
Comment: BCCI case 'a farce'
According to the presiding judge, the case brought against the Bank of England by Deloitte, liquidators for the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), was "a farce" which "had the capacity to damage the reputation of [the British] legal system…
Comment: Sparks continue to fly in Poland
Sparks continue to fly between the president of the National Bank of Poland, Leszek Balcerowicz, and the ruling Law and Justice Party. While a controversial bank merger, which the government tried to block, has now been approved, tension remains high as…
Comment: 'Impasse' over CBK governor's position
A spokesperson for the Central Bank of Kenya has told CentralBankNews that the current wrangling between the central bank and the government has reached "an impasse". The governor of the central bank, Andrew Mullei, has been charged with four counts of…
Comment: The benefits of supervisory integration
A new IMF working paper investigates the trend toward integrating the regulation and supervision of banks, non-bank financial institutions and securities markets. The authors attempt to fill a gap in the literature by empirically assessing the impact…
Comment: Balcerowicz battles on
The president of the National Bank of Poland (NBP), Leszek Balcerowicz, and the ministry of finance are at loggerhead over a hotly debated bank merger. The government wants the deal blocked, Balcerowicz refuses to do so. Even as his first term draws to…
The role of central banks in banking crises
According to this article published on 2 February, central banks should not supervise the banking system. When asked to do so, central banks are really asked to draw criticism on their past performance, their policies and their vigilance in the past, it…
Comment: EU banking supervision
Bundesbank board member Edgar Meister's assertion earlier this week that "the current supervisory framework is no real hindrance to cross-border consolidation" in the European banking sector, underlines the differences in opinion amongst policymakers on…
Regulators should not be competition authorities
Does the Bank of Italy's rejection of the takeover bid for Banca Nazionale de Lavoro by Italian insurer Unipol mean that the Italian authorities have stopped protecting the Italian banking system?
Scandals spotlight Italy's regulatory cracks
According to this article published on Wednesday 21 December, Bank of Italy Governor Antonio Fazio's resignation has highlighted the deep problems in Italy's regulatory structure - a system of feeble financial controls which Fazio spent his last months…
Comment: The benefits of Basel II's colleges
How efforts to implement the new Basel accord are yielding unexpected benefits, with supervisors finding that through their meetings in "colleges", they are learning more about each other's business, how they approach their work and what they need from…
Regulators may never police hedge fund conflicts
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is trying hard not to look incompetent in advance of its hedge-fund registration deadline in February, according to this article published on Monday 28 November.
Comment: Central banks "shouldn't supervise"
In a speech on Thursday, Howard Davies, who served for two years as deputy governor of the Bank of England and as special adviser to the chancellor of the exchequer, and who is currently director of the London School of Economics, argued that a…
Comment: The Old Lady stands her ground
The Bank of England's decision to turn down a settlement offer from the Bank of Credit & Commerce International's (BCCI) liquidator, Deloitte, in the ongoing litigation case related to the BCCI's collapse in 1991, shows how tough the Bank can be when…
Comment: When will Basel II bite
The Basel committee's members are committed to implement their new capital accord in just 15 months. The basic framework should go live on January 1, 2007; with the most advanced approaches following at the end of 2008. But what about those non-member…
IMF's clout and relevance wane
As finance ministers and central bankers from around the world gather in Washington this week for the IMF's annual meetings, the organization finds its relevance waning, this article published on Monday 19 September reports. The Fund may need to define a…
Mexico's financial regulator needs more autonomy
According to this article published on Monday 19 September, despite impressive progress more must be done if Mexico is to have a credible set of enforceable rules that assure economic stability.