Central Banks
Yellen ‘greatly’ concerned by inequality in US
Fed chair takes unusual step of addressing inequality in her speech at a Boston Fed conference; explores four ‘building blocks’ of economic opportunity
European Commission approves central bank’s BES intervention
Bankruptcy would have led to losses up to €28 billion; European Commission says central bank decision is ‘compatible with the internal market for reasons of financial stability’
Mersch: Asset buying may widen income inequality
Non-standard measures ‘shouldn’t last too long’, according to ECB executive board member Yves Mersch, because they could ‘widen income inequality’
Poloz recommends dropping forward guidance as conditions normalise
Bank of Canada governor suggests there are better ways of communicating when conditions normalise; most respondents to CentralBanking.com poll agree
BoE’s Haldane sees UK economy ‘writhing in both agony and ecstasy’
Chief economist sees reasons to be both optimistic and pessimistic about the UK economy, but says on balance rates are likely to have to stay lower for longer than expected
CPMI-Iosco report recommends tools for recovering FMIs
Report lays out toolkit for maintaining critical services and restoring stability in the event a financial market infrastructure comes close to collapse
Top regulators seek to dispel myth of global regulatory harmonisation
Officials from IMF, Bank of England and US Treasury say perfect harmonisation is next to impossible; key now is a shift from design of standards to implementation
The value of ETFs to central bank reserves managers
Exchange-traded funds have emerged as a means for reserve managers to gain access to new exposures and markets, but are they fit for purpose?
Bank of Russia to offer $50 billion through new FX repos
Russian central bank unveils new measures to boost short-term foreign exchange liquidity in markets, and will offer $50 billion between now and the end of 2016
Danièle Nouy: Fed facing similar data challenges as ECB
The supervisory board chair delivers concluding remarks to the ECB conference on statistics; notes similarities between approach of Fed and European authorities to data problems
ECB eases collateral requirements for Greek bonds as borrowing costs soar
European Central Bank says it will reduce the haircut it applies to Greek government bonds, but insists it is not an ‘ad hoc reaction’ to this week’s market stress
Riksbank economist warns on corporate bond market
Economist at the Swedish central bank says it will become ‘increasingly important’ to consider the impact of the corporate bond market on financial stability as it expands
BoE’s Weale posits method of overcoming uncertainty
MPC member says studying rates of change can help overcome uncertainty about spare capacity and the natural rate of interest when setting policy
Colombian paper analyses financial networks
Working paper finds central financial institutions ‘tend to overlap across financial networks, thus their systemic importance may be even greater than envisaged’ in alternate models
European Banking Authority unveils framework for classifying high-quality securitisations
Consultation proposes system for classifying securitisations that are ‘simple, standard and transparent’ and therefore may benefit from more lenient regulation
Riksbank gets new general council
Sweden's parliament names a new general council - the body is composed of MPs and tasked with overseeing the governance of the central bank
Central Bank of Brazil staff stage fifth walkout this year
‘Technical workers’ are seeking to defend their roles, which they feel are increasingly being handed to over-qualified ‘analysts’; Central bank says strike is not affecting its core activities
Debelle surprised markets take central banks at their word
Reserve Bank of Australia assistant governor suggests markets are ‘underestimating’ the possibility that central banks will change course in response to ‘unexpected’ data
Belgian review: Common debt will remain ‘taboo’ in Europe
Article published in National Bank of Belgium economic review describes the issuance of common debt as a ‘panacea’ for multiple problems in the eurozone