Global ETF News Older than One Year
Governments Worldwide Launched 294 Reforms Over the Past Year to Make Doing Business Easier
October 24, 2019--Governments of 115 economies around the world launched 294 reforms over the past year to make doing business easier for their domestic private sector, paving the way for more jobs, expanded commercial activity, and higher incomes for many, according to the World Bank Group's Doing Business 2020 study.
This latest edition of the study documents reforms implemented in 10 areas of business activity in 190 economies over a 12-month period ending May 1, 2019. Business-friendly environments are associated with lower levels of poverty, and improved regulatory efficiency can stimulate entrepreneurship, startups, innovation, access to credit, and investment. The study is the 17th in an annual series that evaluates regulations enhancing or constraining business activity for small and medium-size enterprises.
view the World Bank Doing Business 2020 : Comparing Business Regulation in 190 Economies
Source: World Bank
Moving First on AI Has Competitive Advantages and Risks, New Report Helps Navigate
October 23, 2019--Financial institutions that implement AI early have the most to gain from its use, but also face the largest risks. The often-opaque nature of AI decisions and related concerns of algorithmic bias, fiduciary duty, uncertainty, and more have left implementation of the most cutting-edge AI uses at a standstill.
However, a newly released report from the World Economic Forum, Navigating Uncharted Waters, shows how financial services firms and regulators can overcome these risks.
Source: World Economic Forum
Lower for Longer: Rising Vulnerabilities May Put Growth at Risk
October 16, 2019--The pace of global economic activity remains weak, and financial markets expect rates to stay lower for longer than anticipated in early 2019. Financial conditions have eased even more, helping contain downside risks and support the global economy in the near term. But loose financial conditions come at a cost: they encourage investors to take more chances in a quest for higher returns, so risks to financial stability and growth remain high in the medium term.
The latest edition of our Global Financial Stability Report highlights elevated vulnerabilities in the corporate and non-bank financial sectors in several large economies. These and other weak spots could amplify the impact of a shock, such as an intensification of trade tensions or a no-deal Brexit, posing a threat to economic growth. view more
view the IMF Global Financial Stability Report: Lower for Longer
Source: IMF
Basel Committee reports on Basel III implementation progress
October 16, 2019--The pace of global economic activity remains weak, and financial markets expect rates to stay lower for longer than anticipated in early 2019. Financial conditions have eased even more, helping contain downside risks and support the global economy in the near term.
But loose financial conditions come at a cost: they encourage investors to take more chances in a quest for higher returns, so risks to financial stability and growth remain high in the medium term.
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has today issued the Seventeenth progress report on adoption of the Basel regulatory framework. As noted by the Group of Central Bank Governors and Heads of Supervision, the Committee's oversight body, member jurisdictions are expected to ensure a full, timely and consistent implementation of the finalised Basel III reforms.
Source: BIS
Basel Committee reports on Basel III implementation progress
October 16, 2019--The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has today issued the Seventeenth progress report on adoption of the Basel regulatory framework. As noted by the Group of Central Bank Governors and Heads of Supervision, the Committee's oversight body, member jurisdictions are expected to ensure a full, timely and consistent implementation of the finalised Basel III reforms.
The progess report sets out the adoption status of Basel III standards for each Committee member jurisdiction as of end-September 2019. It includes the Basel III post-crisis reforms published by the Committee in December 2017 and the finalised minimum capital requirements for market risk in January 2019. These reforms will take effect from 1 January 2022.
Source: BIS
Fiscal Monitor: How to Mitigate Climate Change
October 16, 2019--This report emphasizes the environmental, fiscal, economic, and administrative case for using carbon taxes, or similar pricing schemes such as emission trading systems, to implement climate mitigation strategies. It provides a quantitative framework for understanding their effects and trade-offs with other instruments and applies it to the largest advanced and emerging economies.
Alternative approaches, like "feebates" to impose fees on high polluters and give rebates to cleaner energy users, can play an important role when higher energy prices are difficult politically. At the international level, the report calls for a carbon price floor arrangement among large emitters, designed flexibly to accommodate equity considerations and constraints on national policies. The report estimates the consequences of carbon pricing and redistribution of its revenues for inequality across households. Strategies for enhancing the political acceptability of carbon pricing are discussed, along with supporting measures to promote clean technology investments.
Source: IMF
The World Economy: Synchronized Slowdown, Precarious Outlook
October 15, 2019--The global economy is in a synchronized slowdown and we are, once again, downgrading growth for 2019 to 3 percent, its slowest pace since the global financial crisis.
Growth continues to be weakened by rising trade barriers and increasing geopolitical tensions. We estimate that the US-China trade tensions will cumulatively reduce the level of global GDP by 0.8 percent by 2020. Growth is also being weighed down by country-specific factors in several emerging market economies, and by structural forces, such as low productivity growth and aging demographics in advanced economies.
In the October World Economic Outlook, we are projecting a modest improvement in global growth to 3.4 percent in 2020, another downward revision of 0.2 percent from our April projections. However, unlike the synchronized slowdown, this recovery is not broad-based and remains precarious.
view moreview the World Economic Outlook, October 2019 Global Manufacturing Downturn, Rising Trade Barriers
Source: IMF
FSB updates on market fragmentation work
October 14, 2019--The Financial Stability Board (FSB) today published an update on its work on market fragmentation. The update has been delivered to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors for their meeting in Washington D.C. later this this week.
In its June report on market fragmentation, the FSB identified four areas for further work to address market fragmentation: (i) deference; (ii) pre-positioning of capital and liquidity; (iii) regulatory and supervisory coordination and information-sharing; and (iv) market fragmentation as part of the evaluation of reforms, starting with the FSB's ongoing "too-big-to-fail" evaluation.
Source: FSB
Gold-backed ETFs surge to fresh high
October 13, 2019--The price of gold has risen 17.5 per cent this year to $1,507 an ounce, breaking above $1,550 an ounce in September 2019 for the first time since April 2013.
Source: FT.com
Global Banks May Grow More Vulnerable to a Dollar Disruption
October 11, 2019--When a Mexican airline buys Brazilian airplanes, it's likely to finance the purchase with a US dollar loan obtained from a non-US bank. That's just one example of the dollar's outsize role in international financial transactions between non-US counterparts.
What happens if non-US banks suddenly find themselves short of dollars? That was the case during the global financial crisis of 2007-2008, when US financial firms were reluctant to lend dollars to their foreign counterparts. To prevent the collapse of the global financial system, the Federal Reserve provided more than $500 billion in emergency funds to overseas central banks, which could then on-lend the money to their dollar-starved home-country banks.
Source: IMF
