Central Banks
Rajan turns attention to 2016 inflation target
Reserve Bank of India holds key rates as headline inflation drops to 7.8%; Rajan says policy will be set to achieve 6% target by January 2016 from this point onwards
Focus on risk culture is ‘remaking’ the banking system
Patricia Jackson highlights ‘big shift’ in banking as firms implement more rigorous risk frameworks; BoE’s Andrew Bailey sets out the PRA’s approach
IMF warns of new asset bubbles caused by ‘expansionary policies' post-crisis
Report finds global imbalances are shrinking, and concludes this is driven by structural reduction in demand rather than ‘expenditure switching' to domestic products
Bundesbank unveils new card clearing infrastructure
Bundesbank and EBA Clearing launch new XML-based infrastructure for card clearing; payments chief says it allows banks to ‘leverage’ their Sepa investments
Paper finds evidence of multiplier effect in food trade policy
IMF working paper studies the relationship between trade policy and food prices and finds evidence of a multiplier effect in its data sample
Portuguese research examines decline in allocative efficiency
Bank of Portugal working paper finds service sector the ‘main driver’ of decline in allocative efficiency between 1996 and 2011, which the authors say nearly halved GDP growth
US senator calls for hearings into NY Fed supervision
Elizabeth Warren says ‘disturbing issues' raised by former employee's secret recordings of colleagues; New York Fed ‘categorically rejects allegations'
Brazil central bank director vows quick response to inflation
The monetary policy committee of the central bank will evaluate whether the interest rate needs to be raised to battle inflation, says director, and will act quickly if necessary
Greek governor wants to promote SME access to capital markets
Yannis Stournaras lists what he believes are the ‘key priorities’ needed to revive the supply of credit in the eurozone; backs ECB over regulation of asset-backed securities
PBoC sanctions direct trading between renminbi and euro
People’s Bank of China names euro as latest currency to be directly tradable with the yuan on the Chinese interbank market
Trinidad central bank hikes rates in response to Fed forward guidance
‘Altered expectations' over timing of US normalisation puts pressure on Caribbean economy; necessary to ‘enhance appeal' of currency, says central bank
ESRB paper identifies difficulties in tracing origins of collateral
Occasional paper presents results from two data collection exercises, finding ‘widespread’ use of securities financing transactions and lack of clarity on the reuse of collateral
Hong Kong protests trigger emergency action by HKMA
HKMA activates its business continuity plan and takes extraordinary measures to maintain stability as thousands of pro-democracy protesters take to the streets
Supreme Court clears Central Bank of Sri Lanka over Greek investment
Sri Lankan governor and monetary board members cleared over investment in Greek government bonds; Supreme Court says investment decisions ‘best left to central bank’
Paper examines mismatch in Swedish job market
Swedish economy is adding job vacancies but increasing share of workforce have wrong skill-set, Riksbank article finds
BIS paper unveils refined measure for Chinese inflation
Joint effort by economists at the BIS and People’s Bank of China yields new measure of Chinese inflation, which authors say addresses issues with headline and core measures
National Bank of Belgium to close half its remaining branches
Belgian central bank reveals plans to close its branches in Mons and Hasselt in 2016, which are predominantly involved in processing cash
Carney spells out ‘right ideas’ for insurance regulation
Bank of England governor sets out three forthcoming strands of reform to the way insurers will be regulated, to avoid systemic crises in the style of AIG
Central Bank of Turkey quadruples amount of forex on offer in daily auctions
Lira's ‘heightened volatility' follows bank's decision yesterday to hold interest rates steady; pressure on forex the result of geopolitical risk, says analyst
RBA’s Richards outlines fast settlement service at Chicago symposium
Reserve Bank of Australia head of payments policy says the fast settlement service on the country’s new payments platform will be able to deal with ‘very short response times’
Rebel incursion has not halted central bank operations, says Yemen deputy
Ibrahim Alnahari says the central bank is doing its best to maintain normal operations despite continued violence on the streets of Sana’a, with action taken to protect banking sector