Central Banking
Adverse environment forces banknote firm Arjowiggins Security to close
Paper specialist forced to liquidate UK and French holdings despite restructuring
Capital requirements impact collateral demands – BoE paper
Higher capital requirements can make banks demand more collateral, authors find
Polish parliament seeks to cap central bank salaries
Move comes in response to scandal over pay of two senior central bank staff
Chilean central bank hikes rates
Rate rise comes despite US Fed holding rates on January 30
RBI lifts operation restrictions on three state-run banks
Banks no longer face dividend and compensation limits after capital ratios improve
Venezuela to sell 15 tonnes of gold to UAE, reports say
US senator warns of sanctions if UAE co-operates with Maduro regime
Kazakh president piles pressure on central bank to boost growth
Autocratic ruler berates ministers and central bank chief over banks and growth rates
Leverage increasing among large shared loans in US, regulators warn
Fed, FDIC and OCC say lenders are relying on borrowers’ “savings and synergies”
Countries must counter money-laundering through fintech – IMF official
IMF’s Adrian calls for regional co-operation and consultation on new payment systems
IMF endorses Hong Kong’s tight macro-prudential measures
But risks to the outlook appear to be building, the fund says
European Commission accuses eight banks of bond market collusion
EC can fine banks 10% of their turnover if it finds “sufficient evidence” of market rigging
BIS study asks whether central bank crisis actions de-risk the balance sheet
Authors study whether a central bank can influence its own risk, or if this is “wishful thinking”
Philip Lane likely to become next ECB chief economist
Former academic economist set to become first Irish citizen in senior ECB role
Bank of Albania must resolve policy transmission issues – IMF
Issues with monetary policy transmission are obstructing efforts to hit inflation target
Bank of Ghana slashes further 100bp from policy rate
Action follows similar move in 2018, as inflation declines into the target range
Central bank gold purchases soar to highest level since 1971
Russia, Turkey and Kazakhstan accumulated the most gold in 2018
Liberia steps up monitoring of NPLs
New credit reference system to help financial institutions keep track of credit history and debt obligations; investigation ongoing into ‘missing’ banknotes
Fed takes dovish stance as it clarifies long-run monetary policy
New statement seeks to clarify Fed’s balance sheet normalisation strategy
Euro outpacing dollar as cross-border credit grows
Latest BIS statistics show widening gap between credit growth in the two major currencies
Podcast: Iceland removes gender bias from wages
Katrín Ólafsdóttir, MPC member at the Central Bank of Iceland, says equal pay certification will encourage women to enter the economics profession
Austrian far-right party nominates economist for governor
Robert Holzmann has distinguished career as pensions specialist, but political links may cause controversy
Riksbank open to reassessing normalisation if needed – af Jochnick
Sweden’s central bank increased rates in December 2018 for the first time since 2011
ECB to launch market expectations survey
Study aims to gather information on participants' views on future monetary policy evolution
Turkish central bank sees inflation outlook improving
Inflation undershot forecasts in latest period, having overshot them earlier in 2018