Financial Stability
Private sector must revive its central role
US credit markets will only begin to recover once the private sector reclaims its role in providing liquidity from the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, a governor at the central bank, predicted.
Israel puts plastic notes into circulation
The Bank of Israel on Sunday introduced its first polymer banknote.
BoE on how to reduce systemic risk
The Bank of England has published a paper looking at how the structure of financial systems affects systemic risk.
Bank of Canada on housing market volatility
Better access to global financial markets exacerbates the peaks and troughs of business cycles for the housing industry, research published by the Bank of Canada shows.
Serbia's Jelasic praises SEPA
The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), a eurozone-wide payments initiative, is an excellent example of how technology can be used to facilitate development of the financial sector, said Radovan Jelasic, the governor of the National Bank of Serbia.
Crisis "nothing like" Great Depression: Bernanke
Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve and a scholar on the Great Depression, has rebuked suggestions that the current financial climate is similar to that of the 1930s.
Canada monitoring credit conditions
The Bank of Canada is looking at the impact of the unusually wide credit spreads, prevalent in the country's money markets since the summer, on financial stability, inflation and monetary policy, said David Longworth, a deputy governor at the central…
Payments industry lacks competition
If we want to speed up the development in payment services, we need to increase competition in the market, said Erkki Liikanen, the governor of the Bank of Finland.
British banks want to borrow more
UK banks have asked for a sharp increase in their borrowing facilities at the Bank of England, the Financial Times has reported.
IMF puts subprime losses at $945 billion
Estimates of the size of losses on subprime mortgages and related forms of lending just get uglier and uglier. The latest estimate, presented by the International Monetary Fund in its Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR), puts losses at a staggering …
Politicians ask Fed to clarify Bear deal
A high-ranking American politician has issued a strongly worded request for more details about the arrangement the Federal Reserve struck with BlackRock, an asset management firm, to manage a $29 billion portfolio of assets from Bear Stearns following…
Bond spreads determined by turmoil
At the times of crisis global financial market conditions are the fundamental drivers of changes in bond spreads, research published by the International Monetary Fund finds.
IMF chief calls for public intervention in credit
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said on 6 April that he thinks the need for "public intervention" in the credit crisis is becoming more evident.
UK chancellor wants action on market crisis
Alistair Darling, the UK chancellor, has called on his G7 counterparts to formulate a "clear and detailed plan of action" to combat the turmoil in world markets.
Greenspan hits back
Alan Greenspan, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, has said that the blame for the subprime crisis lies with the investment community rather than himself, as has often been argued.
Crisis not over yet, says Netherlands' Wellink
Nout Wellink, the president of the Netherlands Central Bank, said the financial crisis is far from over, the US looks almost certain to go into recession and the rest of the world will suffer the consequences.
Joint Forum: CRT markets' future developments
Firms should not establish material positions in credit risk transfer (CRT) instruments without first having validated models for pricing and risk-managing such exposures, advises a new report from the Joint Forum.
New UK coinage meets lukewarm reception
New coin and banknote designs are almost inevitably greeted with criticism and the first new coin designs for 40 years from the UK's Royal Mint, unveiled on 3 April, were no exception. Historians, designers and MPs have already criticised them.
Payment system risk the priority
The need to mitigate the risk involved in using outmoded payments infrastructure has to be given priority, said Ranee Jayamaha, a deputy governor at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
Tucker: BoE to only partly offset the credit blow
The Bank of England should cut rates gradually to avoid inflation, said Paul Tucker, the Bank's executive director responsible for markets and member of the Monetary Policy Committee.
Lenders expect further credit cutbacks: BoE poll
The Bank of England's quarterly survey of credit conditions, published on 3 April, showed that lenders had reduced the supply of secured credit to households over the three months to mid-March.
Iceland's Fridriksson dismisses stability concerns
In an effort to reassure investors, Ingimundur Fridriksson, a board member at the Central Bank of Iceland, has denied that the country's banks and economy are unstable.
Auction shows massive demand for ECB cash
The European Central Bank's (ECB) first-ever auction of six-month loans was more than four times oversubscribed, indicating the high level of tension in the region's money markets.
Fed's new subprime and alt-A maps
The Federal Reserve System will publish maps updated monthly to illustrate the state of subprime and alt-A mortgage loans across the United States.