Data and Indicators
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Reducing Remittance Fees can Boost Asian Economies
Remittances exceeded $600 billion worldwide in 2015 with more than two-thirds going to developing countries. Developing Asia receives more remittances than any other region—roughly $200 billion—and in some countries remittances even exceed foreign direct investment inflows. Meanwhile, innovations in payment systems can reduce remittance fees dramatically, increasing the earnings sent back to migrants’ friends and families—and supporting economic growth in Asia.
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Can the SF Bay Area Solve Its Affordable Housing Crisis?
Sky-high rents and a competitive real estate market have created a housing crisis of epic proportions in California and especially in the San Francisco Bay Area. What can be done at the city level to create more affordable housing now?
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Implementation of New Impairment Standards: IFRS 9’s Impact on Asia
Many Asian economies will soon implement IFRS 9. The new standard will fundamentally change how banks determine loan loss allowances. This significant change in methodology will likely require that many banks increase loan loss provisions, resulting in lower reported earnings.
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Is Fintech Changing Banking Supervision?
Financial technology is changing the dynamics of banking and how financial institutions deliver their products and services. Even though the Fed doesn’t regulate these companies as a general rule, banking regulators are closely watching fintech. Here’s why.
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(Re)Classifying Frontier Markets
Pakistan’s recent MSCI upgrade highlights one path for frontier financial market development. While stock index categorization may serve to legitimize a market and bestow prestige, it is not necessarily the best indicator for investor sentiment. Global investors consider a broad range of indicators in considering where to deploy their capital. For frontier and emerging markets conducting financial market reform, the challenge is more complex than an index upgrade might imply.
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The Bumpy Road towards Renminbi Internationalization
A more volatile exchange rate and dampened growth expectations for the Chinese economy have halted, and in some cases led to reversals in, the renminbi’s path towards becoming an international currency.
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Japanese Investors Go Abroad with Borrowed Foreign Currency
A half-year into the Bank of Japan’s experiment with negative interest rates, there are growing signs of unusual market activity in Japan, with yields on even long-term government debt going negative and ever-increasing overseas investment. Amid a breakdown in longstanding financial relationships that previously allowed international investors to hedge currency risk cost effectively, Japanese investors are increasingly funding their overseas portfolios with foreign currency debt to minimize foreign exchange risk.
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Fixing Taiwan’s Crowded Banking Sector
Taiwan has a large number of banks relative to the size of the domestic market, leading to unhealthy types of competition and low levels of profitability. Authorities are trying to solve the problem by promoting bank mergers and international expansion.
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Do People Carry Cash? We Asked
Eighty-nine percent of consumers hold cash to some extent, according to the Federal Reserve’s Cash Product Office. In the new Cash Connect video, Policy Analyst Claire Wang asked people on the streets of San Francisco about their spending habits to find out who holds cash. She received a variety of responses.
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China’s Bond Market: Larger, More Open, and Riskier
China’s bond market has grown rapidly in recent years and it is becoming more open to foreign investors. At the same time, an increasing number of bond defaults indicate that the bond market is becoming riskier.