Central Bank

Cyprus' second-largest bank says that it is in talks with the island's finance ministry and central bank on a possible recapitalization. Cyprus Popular Bank said in a statement Monday that it is discussing the possibility of a government guarantee on a capital issue to help attract private investors and minimize the amount that the state would have to cover. Cyprus Popular was the most exposed to Greek debt of the country's top three banks. It posted record losses for 2011 of around (EURO)

The head of Germany's central bank says there is no quick fix for Europe's problems, calling appeals for more support from the European Central Bank and plans for investment in infrastructure a distraction from the hard work of reform. In an interview with Le Monde newspaper Friday, Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann added that it was an "illusion" to think allowing eurozone countries to borrow money jointly would solve the crisis. He said countries that use the euro would need to combine their budgets before turning to "eurobonds.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve, still dusting itself off from a fight that threatened to trim its powers, could emerge from a congressional overhaul of banking rules as the top cop over the nation’s largest financial institutions. Senate negotiators are considering giving the Fed the authority to supervise nonbank financial institutions that are so large and intertwined that their failure could pose a risk to the entire economy, according to people familiar with the legislation.

Britain is in a deeper recession than previously thought, official figures showed Thursday, in another downbeat development that will likely heap the pressure on the government and the central bank to do more to boost the flagging economy. The Office for National Statistics said the British economy contracted by 0.3 percent in both the fourth quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012, as against the 0.2 percent rates previously reported. The declines mean Britain is back in recession, officially defined as two straight quarters of negative growth.

WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterday that the central bank is prepared to provide additional stimulus if the economic lull persists. Delivering his twice-a-year economic report to Congress, Bernanke laid out three options the central bank would consider. One possibility, he said, was another round of Treasury bond buying. That would make the third such effort since 2009. The Fed chief's reassurances underscored the fragile state of the economy more than two years after economists said the recession had ended.

The head of Kuwait's central bank of more than 25 years has resigned, state media said Monday, in the latest shake-up among the Gulf nation's veteran policymakers as political tensions grow. The official Kuwait News Agency said Sheik Salem Abdulaziz Al Sabah, a member of the Gulf nation's ruling family, has stepped down after serving as Central Bank governor since 1986. The one-sentence announcement gave no immediate reason for his resignation. But the government-backed Al Qabas newspaper said Sheik Salem had raised objections to Kuwait's rising...

WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve has tightened the conflict-of-interest restrictions governing directors of its 12 regional banks. The new rules deal with potential conflicts such as one that involved Stephen Friedman, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs Group. They spell out the obligations of directors with ties to financial institutions that change status. Friedman got a waiver to continue serving as chairman of the board of the New York Federal Reserve Bank even though Goldman had switched its status to become a bank holding company, which is regulated by the Fed. It had been an...

The European Union says Hungary has committed to concessions on the independence of its central bank and its judiciary in a move that narrows a rift between the member state and the EU's central institutions. EU spokesman Olivier Bailly said Wednesday that in the wake of a visit by Prime Minister Viktor Orban the EU had been given assurances that Hungarian law will be brought in line with rules on central bank independence. Bailly said talks on financial assistance would now resume.

Kuwait is promoting the central bank's deputy governor to the institution's top job following the resignation of its long-serving leader last month, the finance minister announced Sunday. The appointment of Mohammed Yusef al-Hashel as central bank governor comes as Kuwaiti labor groups, emboldened by Arab Spring protests elsewhere in the region, press for higher wages and perks from the country's rulers. Mustafa al-Shimali, the Gulf nation's deputy prime minister and minister of finance, said the Cabinet approved al-Hashel's appointment, according to the official Kuwait News Agency.

Switzerland's central bank says it has had to delay the issuing of new high-security bank notes by at least a year because of "unexpected technical problems. " Swiss media have been full of speculation about the design of the new notes that will replace the current series featuring notable Swiss such as artist Alberto Giacometti and architect Le Corbusier. Swiss National Bank spokesman Walter Meyer declined Thursday to specify the exact cause of the delay but said anti-forgery features in the notes have never before been used in large-scale print...

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has warned Europe's central banks not to increase their exposure to Greece because of the high level of political uncertainty there ahead of next month's elections. In an interview with German Sunday newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung he said that "Greek people and their elected lawmakers" will have to decide if they want to abandon the euro currency. Pending those political decisions, central banks "must ensure that the risk on our balance sheets remains manageable," Weidmann was quoted as saying.

A senior judge has been sworn in to head Greece's caretaker government for a month as the debt-crippled country lurches through a political crisis that threatens its membership in the 17-nation eurozone. The political uncertainty is worrying Greece's international creditors as well as Greeks themselves, who have withdrawn hundreds of millions of euros from banks since the May 6 election. Council of State head Panagiotis Pikramenos, 67, was appointed Wednesday to head a government that will lack the mandate to make any binding commitments until a new...

European Central Bank head Mario Draghi said Wednesday that the "strong preference" of the ECB's leadership is for financially troubled Greece to stay in the euro. Draghi said that there's no provision in the European Union's basic treaty for a country to leave the 17-member shared currency, and that it's not up to the ECB and its 23-member governing council to decide the matter. "I want to state that the governing council's strong preference is that Greece will continue to say in the euro area," he said in a speech Wednesday at a...

Cyprus' second-largest bank says that it is in talks with the island's finance ministry and central bank on a possible recapitalization. Cyprus Popular Bank said in a statement Monday that it is discussing the possibility of a government guarantee on a capital issue to help attract private investors and minimize the amount that the state would have to cover. Cyprus Popular was the most exposed to Greek debt of the country's top three banks. It posted record losses for 2011 of around (EURO)

Poland's central bank has raised its key interest rate a quarter of a percent to 4.75 percent in a sign that the country is worried more about stubbornly high inflation than a slowdown in growth. The National Bank of Poland's monetary policy council announced the rate hike on Wednesday, in a surprise move to the markets. The bank was to explain its move later in the day, but the decision indicates that the bank is more concerned about above-target inflation than about the risk of financial turmoil spilling over from the eurozone crisis.

BARCELONA - Ahead of crucial elections in France and Greece, Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, warned governments Thursday that opting for the "easier road" of raising taxes to fill public coffers would not solve Europe's problems. Draghi said it was understandable that governments would be tempted to raise taxes "under extreme urgency. " But he emphasized that "past the urgency, this should be corrected," especially in a European environment with "a high level of taxation.

The Dutch central bank says it opposes the introduction of a tax on financial transactions proposed by the European Union Commission in September and endorsed by France's prime minister Nicolas Sarkozy. De Nederlandsche Bank says that the tax, a tariff of 0.1 percent per transaction on stock and bond trades, would disproportionately harm the Netherlands due to the country's high concentration of banks, insurance companies and pension funds. Supporters see the tax as a way of discouraging speculation and forcing the financial sector to pay its own bailout and regulation costs.

Germany says its central bank will lead an investigation into an accounting failure at a nationalized lender that led to the country's debt being overestimated by euro55.5 billion ($76 billion). Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Wednesday that the "really annoying" mistake resulted from different accounting procedures at Hypo Real Estate and its bad bank offshoot. Schaeuble says their cooperation must be improved and "one has to learn from the mistakes. " The accounting error cuts Germany's expected debt level for 2011 by 2.6 percentage points compared with its...

The parent of Rockland Trust Co. said Tuesday that it has agreed to buy Central Bank in a deal valued at $54.8 million as Rockland Trust looks to increase its presence in Middlesex County. Rockland Trust, whose corporate parent is Independent Bank Corp. of Hanover, has about $5 billion in assets and 67 retail branches, 10 commercial lending centers, and 4 mortgage banking centers located throughout Eastern Massachusetts and on Cape Cod, according to its website. Somerville-based Central Bancorp Inc. is the holding company for Central Bank, which has nine branches in such...

Rockland Trust, the largest community bank based south of Boston, is accelerating its expansion north and west of Boston. The parent of Rockland Trust Co., Independent Bank Corp. of Rockland, announced Tuesday that it would buy the parent of Central Bank in Somerville, Central Bancorp, for $54.8 million, more than tripling its presence in Middlesex County. The deal, expected to close by the end of the year, will give Rockland Trust nine additional branches in Middlesex County in addition to the four it already has. Rockland Trust has 67 branches, mostly south of Boston.