FMI
Iranian banks may reconnect to Swift as sanctions lift
Reconnection ends four-year exclusion from the global payments messaging service and should make sending international payments considerably less costly
French governor weighs up ‘disruptive effects’ in card payments market
François Villeroy de Galhau discusses ‘main trends’ influencing card payments market, including ‘new solutions, new behaviours and players, new regulations’
ECB's Mersch considers hurdles to single payments area for cards
European payment card schemes and processors must address issues of standardisation, security and interoperability to create an effective single payments area, Yves Mersch says
Croatia makes it 25 central banks in Target2
The Croatian National Bank will, along with 24 commercial banks in the country, participate in the RTGS system from February 1, making it the fifth central bank outside the eurozone to join
Paper finds positive impact from Dodd-Frank swap rules
Compulsory trading via swap execution facilities has boosted liquidity and cut trading costs in the market for interest rate swaps, working paper published by BoE finds
RBI, BIS gain access to China interbank foreign exchange market
Second batch of official investors receive permission to trade FX spot and derivatives onshore; MAS and BoK also among the seven institutions
Inertia an important factor in consumer banking market, paper argues
Inertia among consumers is an important factor in the market for personal banking, a study argues, stressing that policy-makers must improve their understanding of this factor
Irish central bank may help fund ‘comprehensive’ database of commercial real estate
Central Bank of Ireland may help fund the creation of a commercial property statistical system, which would be maintained by Central Statistics Office
Irish regulations aim to extend protection to SMEs
Regulations published by the Central Bank of Ireland aim to increase the transparency and protection offered to small and medium enterprises borrowing from banks
Russian and Chinese central banks sign MoU
The governors of the Russian and Chinese central banks sign memorandum of understanding; will now be able to issue bonds in each other’s markets
EBA guidelines limit European banks’ exposure to shadow banks
The European Banking Authority has published guidelines limiting the exposure of European Union financial institutions both to the shadow banking sector and to individual firms within it
European regulation of investment firms needs reform, says EBA report
Micro-prudential regulation of investment firms in the European Union does not take proper account of risk and varies widely between countries and firms, an EBA report argues
Draghi calls for action on non-performing loans
Eurozone countries need wide-ranging reform of their systems for dealing with non-performing loans to stimulate the supply of capital to business, Mario Draghi says
Italian deputy governor warns on hurdles to capital markets union
The senior deputy governor of the Bank of Italy says capital markets union is necessary for the European economy but faces considerable obstacles
Irish central bank to investigate fund manager fees
The Central Bank of Ireland intends to investigate the levels of fees charged by asset managers based in the country; review will be one of 12 ‘themed inspections’ of the finance industry
Bahraini central bank launches ‘almost real-time’ payments
Central Bank of Bahrain launches Electronic Fund Transfer System, comprising services for near real-time payments, deferred net settlement and bill aggregation
Spanish paper finds issues with Basel III approach to calculating risk-weighted assets
The approach to calculating banks’ risk-weighted assets introduced by Basel III may create incentives for ‘regulatory arbitrage’, a Bank of Spain paper argues
TCH and VocaLink set sights on US real-time payments
CEOs emphasise effort to create level playing field for 14,000 US financial institutions to access the system, as the firms finalise real-time payments deal
Spanish paper offers guide to using BIS data
A paper published by the Bank of Spain offers an introduction to the statistical data on international banking published by the BIS
PBoC confirms Korea on track to issue first sovereign 'panda bond'
Korean government authorised to raise 3bn yuan in interbank market, China's central bank confirms; Seoul reportedly marketing bond during China roadshow this week
EU survey calls for more cohesion on cloud computing
There appears to be a lack of clear and formal guidance from financial supervisors on banks’ use of cloud-based IT services, while their use is underestimated, an EU agency says
ECB changes euro FX reference rates' publication time
ECB will change the time of its publication of the euro’s foreign exchange reference rates to help ‘safeguard integrity’; further changes may be made if transactions linked to the rates do not fall
RMB now second most used payments currency between China and Japan
The Chinese currency more than doubles share of payments between China/Hong Kong and Japan in two years, eclipsing US and Hong Kong dollars while yen retains number one spot
Bank of Israel unveils real-time payments plan
New payments infrastructure will support push for advanced electronic payments; committee chair identifies plans for wide range of payments improvements, including real time