Central Banks
Malaysian deputy promotes Islamic finance as means of channelling funds to SMEs
Muhammad bin Ibrahim tells African policy-makers to ‘start where it matters most’ and promote Islamic financial products that assist low income groups and SMEs
Fed's Lacker highlights 'critical, misconstrued' distinction between monetary and credit policy
Action constitutes monetary policy if quantity of liabilities is altered and credit policy if portfolio composition changes without affecting liabilities, Richmond Fed head says
Monetary policy stance will 'continue to be tight', says Turkish central bank
Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, which lowered interest rates last week, says slowdown in consumer loans and weak private demand is expected to keep lid on inflation
FOMC's Esther George wants rate lift-off ‘shortly' after end to taper
Kansas City Fed chief says banks are responding to low rates ‘as we should expect' and notes an all-time high of $600 billion of leveraged US loans were issued last year
Obama urged to fill Fed board with community bankers and financial reform champions
Leading Democrats on Senate Banking Committee say it is 'critical' that two vacant Fed board seats are filled by nominees with 'strong commitment to financial reform'
Bank of England appoints ten new directors
Names are unveiled ahead of the BoE's sweeping structural overhaul that comes into force next week; nine out of 10 appointees comes from inside the bank
Post-crisis central bank policies are crowding out ABS, ECB and BoE say
Securitisations could be judged according to a set of commonly agreed principles to make due diligence easier; schemes introduced to boost lending have made ABSs comparatively expensive
Inflation report forecasts tend to be right, research shows
IMF and Czech National Bank economists check inflation outcomes against central bank predictions, finding them to be broadly in line
Zambia warns speculators the kwacha is on the up
Bank of Zambia warns the public not to speculate on the continued fall in the kwacha's value, as economic fundamentals point to appreciation
Fed's Lockhart 'comfortable' with rate liftoff next year
Atlanta Fed president also says weak governance was behind large number of bank failures in southeastern US following financial crisis
BoJ’s Shirai forecasts inflation dip
Sayuri Shirai believes annual CPI inflation will only reach the 2% target at the end of 2016 – making the forecasts more cautious than the BoJ’s baseline
Balkanisation a ‘real threat' to globalised banking, says PRA head Bailey
Bank of England deputy governor and head of the Prudential Regulation Authority warns that essential global financial services are under threat, in Directory of Financial Regulators 2014 foreword
Bank of Korea predicts sharp inflation increase
South Korea’s central bank expects annual inflation to climb above 2.5% in the fourth quarter, suggesting the MPC will turn its attention to rate increases later this year
Bespoke accounting rules a boon for ECB, study finds
Profits are lower but financial buffers bigger than if central bank had adopted the International Financial Reporting Standards framework
Bank of Thailand appoints new deputy; ex governor hired by military regime
Central bank board appoints one new deputy and changes the portfolio of another; ex governor Pridiyathorn Devakula named economic adviser to military junta, again
Central Bank of Kenya backs up talk with currency intervention
Senior trader at I&M Bank explains how forex interventions have kept the exchange rate on an even keel; central bank issues statement to reinforce control of situation
Rajan sets out ‘idealistic' vision for international monetary policy co-ordination
RBI governor would in an 'ideal world' establish an impartial arbiter of unconventional monetary policy; Lagarde says global welfare benefits should be quantified
Ingves: Swedes should be forced to amortise mortgages
Riksbank governor slams Swedish 'culture' whereby 40% of households ‘do not amortise at all'; average debt-to-income ratio for mortgaged households is 313%
Riksbank sees improvement in interbank rate framework
A detailed examination of the 'Stockholm interbank offered rate' framework was launched in 2011 after several shortcomings were revealed
ECB concerned by growing search for yield
European Central Bank review warns the financial system has become more vulnerable to an ‘abrupt reversal of risk premiums’ in the wake of a growing search for yield
Carstens leads Sintra scepticism over macro-pru policies
Bank of Mexico governor Agustin Carstens says macro-prudential instruments were of ‘limited use’ in his country, while Lagarde points to other issues across the globe