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☆ US approved 192 licenses for exports to blacklisted Chinese firms early 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Karen Freifeld | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 3 (Reuters) - The Biden administration approved 192 licenses worth over $23 billion to ship U.S. goods and technology to Chinese companies on a U.S. trade blacklist in the first quarter of last year, according to a document released by a U.S. congressional committee on Friday. The 192 licenses granted were out of 242 license applications decided between January and March 2022, a chart showed, and 115 of those approved contained controlled technology. Nineteen, or 8 percent of the total number of applications, were denied, and 31 were returned without action. "This critical U.S. technology is going to the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance and military efforts," he said. BIS also noted that licenses for some well-known Chinese companies are reviewed under policies set by the Trump administration that do not carry presumptions of denial.

☆ Australia retail sales rebound in Jan, but pulse slows
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Wayne Cole | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SYDNEY, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Australian retail sales rebounded in January after a surprise plunge in December that owed much to changing spending habits, though the underlining pulse was facing headwinds from high inflation and rising interest rates. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Tuesday showed retail sales rose 1.9% in January from December, when they dived 4.0%. Government spending also added 0.1 percentage points to GDP growth, while drags are seen coming from inventories, housing and consumer spending on goods. "It's clear that high inflation and rising interest rates are weighing on consumer spending," said Sean Langcake, head of macroeconomic forecasting for BIS Oxford Economics. "With spending still rebalancing toward services and weaker fundamentals for consumption growth, we expect retail sales growth will be quite patchy over 2023."

☆ BIS' Skingsley: Central banks best placed to provide trust in payment systems
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailBIS' Skingsley: Central banks best placed to provide trust in payment systemsCecilia Skingsley, head of the BIS Innovation Hub, speaks to CNBC's Julianna Tatelbaum.

☆ Why the dollar keeps winning in the global economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Francesco Guerrera | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

The outsized role played by the United States in capital markets, trade and debt reinforces the status quo. Unless the global economy undergoes a complete overhaul, the dollar will remain on top. America may have never “run on Dunkin’”, as the donut-maker’s slogan claimed, but the global economy runs on the dollar. The United States has spurred the search for alternatives by wielding its currency as a weapon against its adversaries. The greenback’s function as the lubricant of global economic activity has another important effect: a stronger dollar curbs global trade.

☆ U.S. approved 70% of export license applications from China in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department and other government agencies approved about 69.9% of export license applications involving China in the 2022 budget year, according to written testimony made public ahead of a U.S. House hearing Tuesday. Companies on the Entity List are restricted from receiving U.S.-origin goods and technology. Commerce also maintains the Unverified List (UVL) that requires checks for U.S. technology use. BIS warned in October that unverified users could be moved to the more restrictive Entity List. Estevez said it removed 25 of 28entities from the unverified list after checks in late 2022.

☆ BIS urges central banks to 'get the job done'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Marc Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Central banks need to "get the job done" when it comes to getting inflation back under control, the Bank for International Settlements has said, urging them to avoid the mistakes of the 1970's by declaring victory too early. The BIS, dubbed the bank for central banks, said it was vital authorities didn't repeat the stop-start cycles of the 1970s when interest rates had to be hiked to painfully high levels after attempts to lower them resulted in an inflation surge. "Central banks have been very, very clear that at this stage the most important aspect is to get the job done," the head of the BIS' Monetary and Economic Department, Claudio Borio, said as part of a quarterly report. The BIS' report also included research showing that rate rises are more likely to cause financial system stress when private debt levels are high, although tougher "prudential policies" can reduce the risk and give central banks more room for manoeuvre. Another section looks at how higher commodity prices and the U.S. dollar exchange rate significantly affects the risk of stagflation - weak growth and high inflation - especially in developing market economies.

A year from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, fracturing geopolitics seems to be rolling back world trade links and financial interdependence at speed. But global financial conditions - and the strength of the U.S. dollar as a proxy for that - may be playing a bigger part than the more dramatic political narrative lets on. "A stronger dollar tends to go hand in hand with tighter global financial conditions and more subdued supply chain activity." Compensating somewhat for dollar exchange rate strength over the decade were historically low real dollar borrowing rates. There's little doubt that the pandemic and the geopolitics surrounding Ukraine and Taiwan have been major potential disruptions to world trade by themselves.

☆ FTX's collapse wiped out $200 billion in the total value of the cryptocurrency market, and it hit retail investors in emerging economies the hardest
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

FTX's downfall wiped out $200 billion from crypto's market capitalization last year, a new report revealed. Retail investors in emerging economies like India and Thailand were hit the hardest, per the Bank for International Settlements. Over 80% of retail participants using a crypto-trading app would have lost money from the market turmoil. "Notably, this share is even higher in several emerging market economies like Brazil, India, Pakistan, Thailand and Turkey. The token, which promised retail investors lofty yields in exchange for parking their assets, caused $450 billion of market value to vanish, per the BIS report.

☆ Re-think needed to regulate Big Tech in finance, says BIS' Carstens
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - A "re-think" is needed on how to directly regulate activities of Big Tech companies in financial services given their size and influence, Bank for International Settlements General Manager Agustin Carstens said in Wednesday. "Without a doubt, a regulatory re-think is warranted, and we need a new path to follow. One that considers the key role of data in big techs’ DNA-based business model. One that strikes the right balance between benefits and risks," Carstens said in a speech. Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by Jason NeelyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Post-QE bond losses rising reality for central banks - BIS
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Marc Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] The building of the European Central Bank (ECB) is seen amid a fog before the monthly news conference following the ECB's monetary policy meeting in Frankfurt, Germany December 15, 2022. The ECB and a number of national central banks in Europe have issued warnings, though. There were dozens of past examples from developing economies, including Mexico, Chile, the Czech Republic and Israel, where central banks can operate without major difficulties in negative equity, it said. "To maintain the public's trust and to preserve central bank legitimacy now and in the long run, stakeholders should appreciate that central banks' policy mandates come before profits," the paper said. Central banks transfers turning to losses($1 = 0.9317 euros)Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Bradley PerrettOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Central bank test lab to trial 'stablecoin' monitoring system
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Marc Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Feb 7 (Reuters) - A global central bank test lab run out of London is designing a 'stablecoin' monitoring system aimed at giving authorities a clearer picture on how they work and how to regulate them in future. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency which aim to maintain a 1:1 peg with a fiat currency such as the dollar. The collapse last year of a widely-used stablecoin pair, Luna and TerraUSD, sparked widespread turmoil in crypto markets. In a bid to ensure there is more oversight going forward, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), often dubbed the central bank for the world's central banks, is to begin work in its London 'innovation hub' on a tool to keep tabs on them. "Most central banks lack tools to systemically monitor stablecoins and avoid asset-liability mismatches," the BIS said.

☆ New look CBDCs and cryptomarket to emerge from turmoil, top BIS official says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Marc Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Cryptomarkets have not been killed off by last year's turmoil, while the new wave of central bank digital currencies will face geopolitical limits, the Bank for International Settlements' new innovation head has predicted. Dubbed the central bank to the world's central bank, the BIS has long been critical of cryptocurrencies, likening bitcoin to both a ponzi scheme and market bubble in the past. Since the start of 2023, however, there has been something of a rebound, including a 40% recovery in bitcoin's price. The European Central Bank should get the go-ahead for full-scale tests. "We will never have full interconnectedness," Skingsley said, adding though that the BIS' work aimed to make CBDCs as versatile as possible.

☆ Australia Dec retail spending nosedives in warning for economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Stella Qiu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Retail sales fell 3.9% in December from November, after 11 months of consecutive gains, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data showed on Tuesday, suggesting that rate hikes so far are working as intended. "The large fall in December suggests that retail spending is slowing due to high cost-of-living pressures," said Ben Dorber, ABS head of retail statistics. "With the impact of the 2022 rate hikes yet to be fully realised, we still expect two more hikes to be delivered in the first quarter." After the data, futures markets still priced in a hefty 85% chance the cash rate would be raised by a quarter-point next week to 3.35%. An analysis by UBS on Tuesday projects a sharp slowing in spending by those who hold "extra" cash savings to a well-below trend pace from mid-2023.

☆ Italy facing attacks by international anarchists, foreign minister says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Alvise Armellini | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ROME, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Italian embassies all over the world are at risk of anarchist attacks linked to the case of the hunger-striking Alfredo Cospito, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Tuesday. Cospito, 55, is an Italian anarchist who has been on a hunger strike for more than 100 days to protest against being jailed under the strict "41 bis" isolation regime. "We are raising security in all of our embassies and consulates because at the moment international anarchists are mobilised against the Italian state," Tajani told a news conference in Rome. Italian embassies, consulates or culture institutes have been targeted in Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Germany and Switzerland, he said. Cospito was placed under the regime in May, after he wrote articles from prison calling on fellow anarchists to continue their armed struggle.

☆ Australia inflation surges further in Q4, more rate hikes loom
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Wayne Cole | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Analysts had thought there was some chance the RBA might even pause its tightening campaign, but the sheer pace of inflation put paid to that. Price rises were broad-based with a closely watched measure of core inflation, the trimmed mean, rising 1.7% in the December quarter. Costs pressures were also building in the service sector which recorded its largest annual rise since 2008, driven by holiday travel, meals out and takeaway food. "Strong demand, particularly over the Christmas holiday period, contributed to price rises for domestic holiday travel and international air fares," said Michelle Marquardt, ABS head of prices statistics. With inflation pressures broadening yet further, markets moved to price in the risk of at least two more rate hikes from the RBA with swaps implying a peak above 3.60%.

☆ Factbox: How top Mafia boss Messina Denaro escaped justice for 30 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Alvise Armellini | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

ROME, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Matteo Messina Denaro, a brutal Sicilian Mafia boss who was Italy's most wanted criminal before his capture on Monday, had been on the run for 30 years. Messina Denaro, 60, was the last runaway member of a generation of mobsters who masterminded a string of bombings and murders that terrorised Italy in the early 1990s. Nobody knows for sure, but there have long been suspicions that Messina Denaro had his back covered by politicians and other establishment connections. Crime writer Roberto Saviano has pointed out that a former junior justice minister, Antonio D'Ali, has been convicted for collusion with the Messina Denaro family. Messina Denaro was eventually caught outside a clinic in Palermo after police discovered he was sick with cancer.

☆ Mafia boss Messina Denaro held in top security Italian prison
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] A general view shows the prison where Italy's most wanted mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro is detained, in L'Aquila, Italy, January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Gabriele PileriL'AQUILA, Italy, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro was being held on Wednesday in a high-security jail in central Italy, subject to special restrictions applied to the country's most dangerous prisoners. "I've no criminal record," Messina Denaro, who was caught on Monday after 30 years on the run, told prison guards when he was admitted to the Costarelle prison close to the city of L'Aquila, Italian media reported. Police on Tuesday found the apartment where they believe Messina Denaro had been living for the past few months under the assumed name of Andrea Bonafede. Prosecutors say Messina Denaro was one of the leading figures in Cosa Nostra but preferred to remain in his own region and was not the "boss of bosses" like the late Salvatore "Toto" Riina.

REUTERS/Andrew KellyWASHINGTON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - A $1.7 trillion government funding bill approved by the U.S. Senate Thursday will bolster U.S. regulators and make it easier for states to bring antitrust lawsuits. The National Labor Relations Board is receiving a $25 million increase to $299 million after not receiving a funding lift in more than a decade. The International Trade Administration, which investigates foreign trade practices, is getting a $55 million increase to $625 million. The spending bill includes a measure that strengthens state attorneys general by allowing them to choose the venue where they bring antitrust lawsuits. The funding bill includes a new provision to ensure millions of working mothers have reasonable break time and a private place to pump breast milk.

EARLY WARNING SIGNSAfter years of tame inflation, Fed officials and other central bankers say they have faced a chain of disruptive events beyond their control ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to the Ukraine war. The central bank has made conservative estimates on inflation despite Russia cutting gas supplies to Europe in response to Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. Even as some economists say an inflation peak could now be in sight, central bankers remain far from taming inflation. The concern among some central bankers is that politicians will respond by raising public spending and so aggravate the inflation pressure that their rate-hike cure is intended to heal. If that were to happen, central bankers “would have to reverse course to prevent the debt market from becoming more disorderly," Goodhart told Reuters.

☆ There's a $80 trillion 'blind spot' in the financial system that could spell trouble for markets as debts held off-balance sheet grow at a rapid pace
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

There's a growing pile of hidden debts that could shock markets, according to the Bank for International Settlements. BIS said there's more than $65 trillion in currency related debts that has little transparency and is growing quickly. A lack of supply of US dollars could create a systemic financial event that roils markets, BIS said. The BIS calls it a "blind spot" for the financial system, and the hidden debt is growing quickly, having more than doubled since 2008. "Off-balance sheet dollar debt may remain out of sight and out of mind, but only until the next time dollar funding liquidity is squeezed.

Bitcoin balances on crypto exchanges - where retail investors typically transact - have fallen to around 2.3 million from its 2020 all-time high of 3.1 million, exchange Bitfinex said. "There are signs that a significant number of retail investors have been discouraged to the point of exiting crypto entirely," Bitfinex analysts said. DAVID VS GOLIATHCrypto retail investors losing money is nothing new. A study from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), conducted between 2015 and 2022, estimated that 73% to 81% likely lost money on their investments in cryptocurrencies. Eloisa Marchesoni, a trader who said she had about $2,000 on FTX she was unable to withdraw, is sure crypto will retain its attraction for smaller investors.

SYDNEY, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Australia's central bank on Tuesday raised interest rates to a 10-year high and stuck with its projection that more hikes are needed, a stance taken as slightly hawkish by markets that were looking for signs of a pause in the near term. "The size and timing of future interest rate increases will continue to be determined by the incoming data and the Board's assessment of the outlook for inflation and the labour market." Some economists had been looking for a change in the forward guidance by the central bank this time. A top central banker said in November that the board was nearer to the point where it might pause on rates. The central bank had previously indicated it wanted to slow down and assess the drastic moves' effects on consumer spending, especially with a global recession looming.

☆ BIS warns of $80 trillion of hidden FX swap debt
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Marc Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has warned that pension funds and other 'non-bank' financial firms now have more than $80 trillion of hidden, off-balance sheet dollar debt in the form of FX swaps. Its main warning though was what it described as the FX swap debt "blind spot" that risked leaving policymakers in a "fog". FX swap markets, where for example a Dutch pension fund or Japanese insurer borrows dollars and lends euro or yen in the "spot leg" before later repaying them, have a history of problems. For both non-U.S. banks and non-U.S. 'non-banks' such as pension funds, dollar obligations from FX swaps are now double their on-balance sheet dollar debt, it estimated. Market volatilityDINO-MITEOther sections of the report focused on findings from its recent global FX market survey.

☆ China c.bank says to support growth, sees moderate inflation in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BEIJING, Dec 2 (Reuters) - China's central bank will focus on supporting the slowing economy, People's Bank of China Governor Yi Gang said on Friday, adding that domestic consumer inflation is likely to stay moderate in 2023. The central bank's accommodative policy will help support China's economic recovery and employment, Yi said in a video speech to the Bank of Thailand-BIS conference in Bangkok. "Our focus is growth right now," Yi said, adding that China's economic growth is slower than expected due to the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic and other headwinds. Yi said advanced and emerging-market economies should improve policy collaboration to cope with challenges facing the global economy. Reporting by Kevin Yao; Editing by Tom Hogue & Shri NavaratnamOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried did financial system a favour
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Peter Thal Larsen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

LONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Sam Bankman-Fried has tipped the cryptocurrency industry into crisis. But the spectacular implosion of FTX, the exchange he founded, has done the broader financial system a big favour. Bankman-Fried, widely known as SBF, was eager for regulators in the United States and elsewhere to recognise crypto exchanges like FTX. In that sense, he’s done the financial system a favour. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has previously told Reuters some of the transfers out of FTX were a result of “confusing internal labelling”.

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