Central Banks
Greek municipalities’ union delays cash transfer to central bank
The Greek government will not be able to tap the municipalities’ funds to pay the IMF until their demands are approved in parliament
Norges Bank’s Olsen backs ‘leaning against the wind’
Øystein Olsen presents evidence in favour of using monetary policy to lean against financial imbalances, which he says smooths inflation and output in the long run
People: Malaysia appoints assistant governor; BoJ board member approved
Bank Negara Malaysia names Mohd Adhari Belal Din as assistant governor, while Marzunisham Omar takes office at the IMF; Japanese government approves Yutaka Harada as BoJ board member
Singapore inflation to ease before rising at end of 2015
CPI inflation could be negative on a year-on-year basis for consecutive months, which MAS says reflects ‘falling car prices, housing rentals, and costs of oil-related items’
Belgian central bank embraces responsive design with new website
National Bank of Belgium launches new website with cleaner design and upgrades its statistical database, while wider central banking community look to improve online presence
Bank of Finland shuffles board responsibilities
Under new set-up, Erkki Liikanen is responsible for monetary policy preparation, domestic economic policy, financial market issues and external communications
Emerging markets close in on Basel III completion
Latest Basel Committee progress report shows most jurisdictions have moved significantly closer to full Basel III implementation, with emerging markets making particularly rapid progress
Nouy sees banking union driving deeper integration
ECB report finds financial integration back to levels achieved before sovereign debt crisis; Danièle Nouy expects banking union to help create ‘deeper integration of a higher quality’
Nigeria central bank orders banks to disclose bad debtors
Banks in Nigeria will have to publish lists of ‘delinquent debtors’ starting May 1, in an attempt to battle the ‘rising trend of non-performing loans the industry’
El Salvador central bank sells 80% of its gold reserves
Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador sold 80% of its gold holdings last month and invested the proceeds in dollars; Venezuela carries out $1 billion gold swap deal
Constâncio tells national supervisors to ‘recognise and reciprocate’ regulatory measures
ECB vice-president suggests ‘automatic and mandatory reciprocity’ would benefit a range of macro-prudential measures in the eurozone; only one case of voluntary action to date
Kuwait breaks new ground with regulatory data release
Central Bank of Kuwait releases quarterly ‘financial soundness’ indicators including capital adequacy and regulatory liquidity; few central banks release similar data at such high frequencies
IMF paper lays out new capital controls dataset
IMF working paper presents new dataset of capital control restrictions on both inflows and outflows of 10 categories of assets for 100 countries between 1995 and 2013
BIS’s Hannoun backs central banks' right to surprise markets
Deputy general manager praises Swiss National Bank for issuing markets with a wake-up call, warning of the heavy cost associated with unconventional monetary policy
Fed updating supervisory guidance on community banks
A deputy director tells subcommittee in House of Representatives the Fed has ‘several efforts underway’ to provide regulatory relief for community banks
Interview: Manuel Sánchez on shifting financial stability risks
Bank of Mexico deputy governor speaks about monetary policy normalisation in the US, the limits of macro-prudential tools and developing capital markets
Bank of Portugal ‘unprecedented’ decision over BES split questioned in lawsuit
Central bank’s decision to remove a loan from Oak Finance to BES from the ‘good bank’ created in the wake of its failure is challenged in court by New Zealand Superannuation Fund
Iranian governor floats plan for new IMF training centre
Valiollah Seif puts plan for new Iran-based IMF regional training centre to Christine Lagarde; says inflation outlook has improved since president Hassan Rouhani took office
RBA paper finds only weak support for sticky information Phillips curve
Paper provides ‘first estimates’ of a sticky information Phillips curve for Australia, finding the curve fits poorly with the inflation-targeting era but better in earlier years
Cross-border claims end upward rise, BIS data shows
Latest international banking statistics show global cross-border claims in slight decline after three consecutive quarters on the rise; claims on non-banks rise strongly however
Argentina boosts central bank reserves with bond issuance
Proceeds from Argentina's bond auction earlier this week have been deposited in the central bank reserves, putting them out of reach of holdout funds suing the South American country
Carstens expects Mexican inflation to end year at 3% target
Bank of Mexico governor expects inflation to end the year at 3% target, but does not rule out an interest rate increase if prices start to rise due to a weaker peso