Financial Stability
Russia-Belarus to have common currency from 2008
Russia and Belarus will have a common currency starting from 1 January 2008, representatives of the Interbank Currency Council said on Friday.
Hunt on for 'radioactive dollars' in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan is currently hunting for dozens of "radioactive dollars" circulating in the country's financial system.
BoE's Gieve: Oil prices should not impact on rates
John Gieve, the new deputy governor of the Bank of England, on Thursday 26 January rejected suggestions that UK interest rates should rise simply because of very high energy costs.
IMF paper: Vanishing contagion?
This IMF Paper, published January 2006, says that while a number of emerging market crises were characterized by widespread contagion during the 1990s, more recent crises have been mostly contained within national borders.
NY Fed's Geithner on global imbalances
In the speech 'Policy implications of global imbalances' given on 23 January Timothy Geithner of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said the massive and growing U.S. current account deficit presents a threat to the world economy and an eventual…
Z$50 000 bank note coming to Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's inflation ravaged citizens will soon have a new Z$50 000 bank note to make shopping easier, central bank governor Gideon Gono announced on Tuesday 24 January.
BoE's Lomax on global financial imbalances
In a speech at the Chatham House conference on Global Financial Imbalances given on 24 January Rachel Lomax of the Bank of England said large global economic imbalances increase the risk of financial market disruption, which could hurt economies.
Britain's fiscal rule is more leaden than golden
Lectures to Britain from the European Union on fiscal discipline are hypocritical and pointless, according to this article published on Monday 16 January. However, the UK government's "golden rule" has masked an escalating deficit on state spending that…
ECB says forgers favouring 20-euro notes
The European Central Bank has reported the number of forged bank notes traced in 2005 fell 2.5 percent, but the number of 20-euro notes rose sharply in the second half of the year.
RBI plans RTGS cover for 5000 branches
The Reserve Bank of India said it plans to bring another 5,000 bank branches under the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system mechanism by June 2006.
Enough said, Mr. Park
This Editorial published on Friday 13 January urges Bank of Korea Governor Park Seung not to cause any more losses to the country through his verbal mistakes. Following comments made Thursday by Mr Park, the won surged immediately, causing a big…
Thailand to speed up adoption of e-payment
The Bank of Thailand plans to accelerate the adoption of electronic payment in place of cash and cheque settlement to cut financial costs and ensure efficient and quick services.
Bank of England Financial Stability Review, Dec 05
The Bank of England published its latest Financial Stability Review for December 2005 on Friday 16 December. Near-term risks to the UK financial sector from default by households, firms and overseas borrowers seem limited, and conditions in international…
Comment: Contagion threat still present
An increasing number of emerging market economies (EMEs) are finding that they are able to borrow money in international capital markets, and on historically favourable terms.
ECB's Financial Stability Review, December 2005
The European Central Bank published its December 2005 Financial Stability Review on 8 December. In the report the ECB said the strength and resilience of the euro area financial system has further improved over the past six months, contributing to a…
HKMA: Four pointers to financial stability
In a commentary published by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, HKMA Chief Executive Joseph Yam says open, medium-sized and sophisticated international financial centres are attractive to international fund flows, which are often volatile. The task of…
Payment Innovation Conference, Amsterdam 4-5 April
The key theme is 'Payment Innovation Beyond SEPA'. SEPA is the acronym for 'Single European Payment Area', a political effort to harmonize all payment systems within Europe.
Norges Bank Financial Stability Report No.2, 2005
The central bank of Norway, Norges Bank, has published its twice yearly Financial Stability Report 2/2005. "The short-term outlook for financial stability is regarded as satisfactory and somewhat better than half a year ago," said Governor Svein Gjedrem.
BNB implements new treasury management system
The Bulgarian National Bank has strengthened its accession strategy through the implementation of The Trema Suite as its new treasury management system covering Front-, Middle- and Back Office for their reserve management operations.
Proposal for BOJ's next-generation RTGS project
The Bank of Japan has released a consultation document on the proposal for the next generation of the BOJ-NET Funds Transfer System.
BoT should regulate payments, says committee
According to a government committee on electronic transactions, the Bank of Thailand should have the authority to regulate the electronic payment business.
Document shows plan to shake up EU payments system
The European Union's payments system is set for a wide-ranging overhaul to cut down on the cost of cross-border transactions and save up to 100 billion euros ($117.7 billion), a European Commission document quoted by Reuters showed on Thursday 1 December.
FSF meets with the hedge fund community
The Financial Stability Forum (FSF) recently convened two informal workshops of senior members of the hedge fund community, their counterparties, and financial authorities.
ECB's Tumpel-Gugerell on SEPA
In the speech 'SEPA: making the dream become a reality' given on 15 November Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell of the ECB said the ECB acts as a helping hand to create, out of the many different national payment schemes, one pan-European scheme for each of the…