Central Banks
Cold comfort for Icesave guarantors
Putative Icelandic government demands on the Landsbanki insolvency estate likely behind UK and Dutch lawsuits
Ukraine appoints revolutionary leader to head up central bank
Stepan Kubiv, deputy chairman of Ukraine parliament's banking and finance committee, will take over at the central bank having ‘administered' the protests that toppled the regime
Sweden mulls tighter rules on wholesale forex funding
Group comprising top-ranking decision-makers, including Riksbank governor Stefan Ingves and the minister of financial markets, highlights ‘big risk’ of foreign wholesale funding
Financial market fragility might be down to 'poor policies', says Lacker
Stylised and abstract economic models used to 'justify' Fed intervention during the financial crisis may not have received enough discussion, Richmond Fed president argues
Fed floats ‘advanced approach' for calculating risk weights
Biggest US banks will use new approach to calculate risk-based capital ratios from Q2 2014; changes to stress-test procedures pushed back a year to October 2015
Sepa obstacles have 'not evaporated completely’, warns Finland paper
Bank of Finland researcher finds the advent of the Single Euro Payments Area has not removed all of the barriers to ‘a true domestic products and services market’
G-20 pledge signposts en route to 'normal' monetary policy
Central bank governors and finance ministers in the world's biggest economies promise to be ‘mindful of impacts on the global economy' as they exit unconventional monetary policy
Singapore unveils faster payments service
The Association of Banks in Singapore says ‘almost immediate’ payments service for interbank transfers will launch in the middle of the year
Australia, Korea strike $5 billion swap deal
Glenn Stevens and Choong Soo Kim sign the countries’ first swap arrangement on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting as they look to promote bilateral trade
Saudi inflation expected to fall below 3% in 2014
Country's cost of living index peaked at 4% last April before inflationary pressures in the transport and restaurant sectors abated during second half of the year
Fed publishes FOMC transcripts from 'crisis year' 2008
Transcripts of FOMC meetings from the year Lehman Brothers went bust reveal thinking behind exceptional monetary policy decisions
Iceland governor must re-apply for post as government mulls central bank shake-up
Ministry of finance says decision to review central bank's governing structure means it will advertise for applications for governorship; media speculate that political motives play a part
Forex loans helped Hungarian firms invest more - until the forint fell in the ‘great recession'
Working paper finds Hungarian firms that borrowed in foreign currencies invested more before the crisis, but experienced a negative balance sheet effect thereafter
IMF praises ‘dramatic’ turnaround in Spanish bank sector
Final report on Spain’s financial sector reform programme says ‘steadfast’ implementation paid dividends, but warns of a number of alarming trends still prevalent in the financial sector
Study finds support for Reserve Bank of Fiji's targeting of overnight policy rate
Working paper uses quarterly data for a 10-year period, 'comprehensively estimating all potential money demand equations within the ambit of monetary policy'
People: Bank of Spain bolsters supervisory staff; ECB advertises two more SSM posts
Bank of Spain fills two supervisory roles with internal promotions; ECB looks to hire two more deputy directors-general for SSM
Euribor rate-setting improvement ‘substantial’, say regulators
EBA-Esma report finds European benchmark setter has made ‘significant progress’ towards correcting previous governance failures, but six of 10 areas require further work
Central bank independence is 'oversold', says Cargill
Thomas Cargill, chair of the AEA's session on central bank independence, says rules-based approach first advocated by Milton Friedman is 'far more important' for price stability
Prasarn says Thailand still unsure of CCP viability
Thai governor says emerging markets need more time to assess whether creating central counterparties would bring the ‘intended benefits’ without ‘undue consequences’
Price-setters still expect Sarb to miss inflation target
The South African Reserve Bank has succeeded in persuading analysts it will keep inflation within its target band, but price-setters' expectations remain higher
Kazakhstan aims for hat-trick in banknote beauty parade
The International Bank Note Society judges newly issued banknotes on aesthetic and security grounds; Solomon Islands among those aiming to wrest crown from the Kazakhs
Home repossession rules explain Europe's divergent debt profiles, paper finds
Discussion paper published by the Deutsche Bundesbank says differences in legal processes explain the ‘striking differences’ in debt profiles of each eurozone country
Sanusi exiled from Central Bank of Nigeria
Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan suspends the central bank governor for financial recklessness; Sanusi says he will fight the suspension but accepts his days are numbered