Asia
Why Bank Negara avoided ‘a confrontational approach’ on 1MDB fraud
Veteran governor says being more outspoken would have damaged the central bank
South Korea joins global easing cycle
Government efforts to cool housing prices create opportunity for central bank to cut rates by 25bp
Lower risks enable authorities to shift policy – Amro report
Asean+3 research arm says challenges remain on dollar dependency and property markets
The hidden dynamics behind China’s BoP ‘errors and omissions’
Marcello Minenna highlights the possible implications an unaccounted-for £30bn has for the PBoC
Working group minutes: central banks weigh CBDC design choices
Central bankers discuss CBDC design elements, adoption rates and cross-border payments
Middle income countries form largest membership of World Bank Ramp
Central banks highlight market intel, support, training as partnership gains
Half of middle income central banks intervened in FX markets in 2023
Liquidity tranches form largest part of reserves in lower-middle income countries
Most high income central banks engage in securities lending
But liquidity stress-testing tends to be common practice across middle income institutions
Bank Indonesia announces surprising rate cut
Central bank aiming to boost growth amid stable inflation and global easing cycle
Large reserve holders use external managers for intel and new assets
Staff training trumps new asset class adoption as overall goal for third parties’ engagement
Asset delegation to external managers averages just 12%
One in 10 central banks considering reviews of allocations to external managers
Hong Kong and Macao authorities link bond settlement systems
Direct connection could allow investors to trade wider variety of financial products
Central banks split over impact of US sanctions on dollar reserves
De-dollarisation, if it happens, will be very slow, central banks say
Reserve assets still rarely screened on ESG grounds
Bonds and equity indexes remain widely favoured for benchmarking
Japan should gradually raise rates to around 1% – BoJ’s Tamura
Board member considers this to be country’s neutral interest rate
Ten central banks diversify portfolios with new asset classes
Institutions introduce green bonds and others into their reserve holdings
Asia-Pacific has highest assessing reserve adequacy metric
Ratios broadly higher among middle income central banks
Portfolio managers make up largest share of reserve teams
Staff average annual earnings hover around $30,000 level
Ueda: BoJ will continue raising rates if ‘outlook realised’
Governor affirms central bank’s hawkish stance ahead of this month’s monetary policy meeting
Cyber crime is central banks’ top financial instability risk
Upper-middle income countries more likely to be wary of foreign exchange crisis
Supra-national stress tests less common in middle income countries
Most central banks conduct stress tests of banks more than once a year