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The World Federation of Exchanges warns against short-selling bans
March 30, 2020--The World Federation of Exchanges ("WFE"), the global industry group for exchanges and CCPs, has today issued a statement, criticising recent bans on short-selling as damaging to markets and failing to achieve their desired effect. WFE CEO Nandini Sukumar said:
"Banning short-selling interferes with price formation, thereby increasing uncertainty.
That can only artificially amplify volatility and probability of default, the opposite effect to that claimed, and hampers the ability of markets to serve the real economy. It is not-and never has been -true that bans have any other, positive effect on market activity or price levels."
Unlike circuit breakers and other safeguards put in place by exchanges to slow markets down in times of stress, short-selling bans inhibit orderly markets rather than promote them.
OECD updates G20 summit on outlook for global economy
March 27, 2020--Efforts to contain virus and save lives should be intensified, and governments should plan stronger, more coordinated measures to absorb growing economic blow
Increasingly stringent containment measures needed to slow the spread of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) will necessarily lead to significant short-term declines in GDP for many major economies, according to new OECD projections.
OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría, in preparation to the G20 Virtual Summit that took place yesterday, unveiled the latest OECD estimates showing that the lockdown will directly affect sectors amounting to up to one third of GDP in the major economies. For each month of containment, there will be a loss of 2 percentage points in annual GDP growth. The tourism sector alone faces an output decrease as high as 70%. Many economies will fall into recession. This is unavoidable, as we need to continue fighting the pandemic, while at the same time putting all the efforts to be able to restore economic normality as fast as possible.
ETFGI's report shows currency hedged ETFs and ETPs listed globally gathered net inflows of US$3.10 billion during February 2020
March 24, 2020--ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm covering trends in the global ETFs/ETPs ecosystem, reported today that currency hedged ETFs and ETPs listed globally gathered net inflows of US$3.10billion during February bringing year to date net inflows to US$7.17 billion.
Total assets invested in currency hedged ETFs and ETPs decreased by 2.2% from US$181 billion to US$177 billion, with a 5-year CAGR of 21.3%, according to ETFGI's February 2020 Currency hedged ETFs and ETPs industry landscape insights report, an annual paid-for research subscription service. (All dollar values in USD unless otherwise noted.)
Highlights
Currency hedged ETFs/ETPs gathered net inflows of $3.01 billion during February.view more
The Global Green Finance Index 5
March 24, 2020--March 24, 2020-The fifth edition of the Global Green Finance Index (GGFI 5) was published on 24 March 2020. GGFI 5 provides evaluations of the depth and quality of the green finance offerings of 67 major financial centres around the world. The GGFI serves as a valuable reference into the development of green finance for policy and investment decision-makers.
The Results Of GGFI 5 Include:
There is growing confidence in the development of green finance across all regions. Ratings of green finance rose in almost all centres for both depth and quality.
All centres received a higher rating for depth than in GGFI 4; and all but five centres received a higher rating in quality.
Western Europe continues to lead the world's centres in green finance depth and quality, taking nine of the top ten places in depth and the top 12 places in quality. This reflects the continuing work being undertaken by European financial institutions, central banks, regulators, and the European Union to embed sustainability in their regulatory work.
The Asia/Pacific region has again fallen back slightly in this edition.
Amsterdam retained its leading position in the depth index, with Luxembourg still in second place.
view the The Global Green Finance Index 5 report
IOSCO report examines how existing regulatory principles could apply to stablecoins
March 23, 2020--The Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions today published a report identifying the possible implications of global stablecoin initiatives for securities markets regulators.
The report entitled Global Stablecoin Initiatives (hereinafter "the Report") examines the regulatory issues arising from the use of global stablecoins and explores how existing IOSCO Principles and Standards could apply to these arrangements.
IOSCO,s Fintech Network prepared the Report as part of an effort to evaluate global stablecoin proposals from a securities market regulator's
The Report finds that, depending on its structure, a global stablecoin may fall within securities market regulatory frameworks. Whether IOSCO Principles and Standards are relevant to stablecoins depends on the specific design of each initiative and its legal and regulatory characteristics and features.
view the IOSCO Global Stablecoin Initiatives report
BIS Working paper-The dollar, bank leverage and real economic activity: an evolving relationship
March 17, 2020--Focus
The paper studies how financial conditions affect real economic activity. It examines, in particular, the relationship between the role of the dollar exchange rate and indicators compiled from surveys of corporate purchasing activity around the world, as well as indicators of global trade growth. A special focus is on how this relationship has evolved since the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) compared with the pre-crisis period.
Contribution
Financial conditions affect real economic activity, and this relationship has changed since the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-09, not least because of significant changes that have taken place in the pattern of financial intermediation. Our paper contributes to the literature examining the greater role of the dollar as a determinant of global economic activity. It sheds light on this issue by examining how changes in the financial sector since the GFC have influenced the empirical relationship between global purchasing managers' indices, world trade and indicators of global financial conditions, with a special focus on the broad dollar exchange rate index.
Findings
We find that the relationship between financial market variables and real economic activity has changed since the GFC.
Bassanese Bites: Feeling sick
March 16, 2020--Global Markets
Last week was one to tell your grandchildren about. And for the younger people around the market, you've now been blooded with an example of just how volatile and cruel the equity market can be. Each generation gets its own meltdown it seems and and now it's the millennials turn.
It's why equities outperform cash and bonds over the long-run-you are getting paid to endure the often wild ride!
But this is one for the record books-we've now had the fastest descent into a US bear market (20% decline from peak) in history, with the S&P 500 down 26.7% within 18 trading days at its low point last Thursday. We’ve also seen broader liquidation and deleveraging develop, with yields on even government bonds rising last week. Credit spreads have naturally widened also, with a move to cash also hurting gold.
Point of No Returns-A ranking of 75 of the world's asset managers approaches to responsible investment
March 15, 2020--Crises in the natural world have reached a critical level, while global inequality and human rights violations remain widespread and rife. Inaction threatens the very existence of human society. Tackling these challenges requires an overhaul of the global economy.
Yet businesses and financial organisations continue to seek short-term returns without accounting for the externalities of their decisions-with devastating long-term impacts on people and the planet.
It is in this context that we examine 75 of the most influential asset managers worldwide on responsible investment governance, climate change, biodiversity and human rights.
Bitcoin Drops To Lowest Point In A Year
March 13, 2020--Despite a recent bounce, bitcoin dropped to below $4,000 early on Friday (March 13), according to a report by CoinDesk.
It reached $3,867, which was the lowest level seen since March 25 of last year. It has since recovered from that low.
Bitcoin is down over $2,000 from a high of around $8,000 early on Thursday (March 12). The cryptocurrency now has a 27 percent loss YTD, even though it gained 46 percent last month and was trading at $10,500.
Bitcoin briefly overtook gold, but that changed on March 13-gold now has a 7.5 percent YTD gain.
IMF Working Paper-r minus g negative: Can We Sleep More Soundly?
March 13, 2020--Summary:
Contrary to the traditional assumption of interest rates on government debt exceeding economic growth, negative interest-growth differentials have become prevalent since the global financial crisis. As these differentials are a key determinant of public debt dynamics, can we sleep more soundly, despite high government debts?
Our paper undertakes an empirical analysis of interestgrowth differentials, using the largest historical database on average effective government borrowing costs for 55 countries over up to 200 years. We document that negative differentials have occurred more often than not, in both advanced and emerging economies, and have often persisted for long historical stretches. Moreover, differentials are no higher prior to sovereign defaults than in normal times. Marginal (rather than average) government borrowing costs often rise abruptly and sharply, but just prior to default. Based on these results, our answer is: not really.
