This report outlines the progress made by banks in implementing the Basel Committee's Principles for effective risk data aggregation and risk reporting ("the Principles" or "BCBS 239")1 based on supervisors' assessments conducted in 2019.

FSI Briefs No 5, April 2020. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, governments have launched guarantee programmes to support bank lending to companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. This is essential to avoid a sharp contraction in bank credit that would exacerbate the pandemic's adverse impact. The design of such programmes needs to strike a difficult balance between responding promptly to the pandemic and maintaining a sufficient level of prudence. Key features of a sample of programmes (eg target beneficiaries, coverage of the guarantee, loan terms, length of the programme) reflect this tension. Incentives were created for the banks to join these programmes by exploiting flexibility in existing prudential requirements, while central banks have often provided liquidity support. Programmes are, however, subject to operational challenges and, ultimately, fiscal capacity limits.

Remarks by Mr Stephen S Poloz, Governor of the Bank of Canada, at the Ivey Business School, London, Ontario, 30 April 2020.

We develop a parsimonious model to study the effect of regulations aimed at reducing counterparty risk on the structure of over-the-counter securities markets. We find that such regulations promote entry of dealers, thus fostering competition and lowering spreads. Greater competition, however, has an indirect negative effect on market-making profitability.

Introductory remarks (by videoconference) by Mr Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the European Central Bank, to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament, Frankfurt am Main, 7 May 2020.

The semiannual OTC derivatives statistics provide data on notional amounts outstanding and gross market values for all types of over-the-counter derivatives contracts. They are reported by large dealers in 12 countries on a worldwide consolidated basis.

Are financial intermediaries inherently unstable and, if so, why? To address this, we analyse whether model economies with financial intermediation are particularly prone to multiple, cyclic or stochastic equilibria.

We document that corporate pension contributions respond to tax-based incentives using the 2017 Tax Cut & Jobs Act (TCJA) as a natural experiment. The TCJA cut the U.S. federal corporate tax rate, temporarily increasing contribution incentives for sponsors of defined-benefit retirement plans. We exploit cross-sectional variation in ex-ante exposure to these incentives.

Bank of Italy Working Papers by Giorgio Albareto, Andrea Cardillo, Andrea Hamaui and Giuseppe Marinelli

Bank of Italy Working Papers by Luca Metelli, Filippo Natoli and Luca Rossi

Bank of Italy Working Papers by Eleonora Porreca and Alfonso Rosolia

Bank for International Settlements BIS Working Papers by David Cook and Nikhil Patel

Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers by Eleonora Granziera and Markus Sihvonen

Bank of England Working Papers by Aydan Dogan and Ida Hjortsoe

Bank of England Working Papers by Cristiano Cantore and Lukas Freund

Bank of England Working Papers by Cristiano Cantore, Filippo Ferroni and Miguel León-Ledesma

Netherlands Bank DNB Occasional Studies by Peter Wierts and Harro Boven

Bank for International Settlements BIS Working Papers by Francesca Carapella and Cyril Monnet

European Central Bank Working Papers by Marien Ferdinandusse, Maximilian Freier and Annukka Ristiniemi

Bank of Spain Working Papers by Henrique S. Basso and Juan F. Jimeno

Central Bank of Chile Working Papers by Benjamín García and Juan Guerra-Salas

Central Bank of Chile Working Papers by Tomás Gómez, Alejandro Jara and David Moreno

“If people saw this, they would stay home.” What the war against the coronavirus looks like inside two Bronx hospitals.

More suffering is ahead for the developing world.

These causes will make great use of your money or your time.

Penn State Mont Alto recognizes and honors winners during awards ceremony

Penn State Mont Alto unveiled its new project and supply chain management degree in response to a local and global need.

Staying active and maintaining physical fitness has many benefits to all elements of wellness, including mental and emotional well-being that may be taxed during social distancing. At Penn State Mont Alto, the athletic department has been releasing weekly at-home workout and challenge videos that are accessible on our Facebook and Instagram pages to keep our student-athletes engaged.

The only fiscal thing to fear is deficit fear itself.

Beware men who never admit having been wrong.

Why won’t Republicans help Americans losing their jobs?

The 2020 "Expanding Empathy" lecture series has moved online and added a lecture on "The Altruistic Brain," as well as a panel discussion on empathy in the time of COVID-19, both to be held on April 29 via Zoom.

The College of Health and Human Development will host M. Daniele Fallin, Sylvia and Harold Halpert Professor in Mental Health and chair of the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, at 4 p.m. via Zoom Webinar on Thursday, May 7, for the next presentation in its Dean’s Lecture Series: Perspectives on the Pandemic. This presentation, “Mental Health and the COVID Pandemic,” will summarize recent findings on the psychological effects of the pandemic, as well as offer some strategies for prevention and intervention as the pandemic, and its after-effects, continue.

Alexandra Stone and Blake Gillikin will serve as college marshals for spring 2020 commencement.

Student marshals will represent each department for spring 2020 commencement

Two Mont Alto student-athletes named to the USCAA All-Academic Team; Corrine Custer-Grassmyer recognized as John Fritz Sportsmanship Award Honoree.

Apple's higher-end 13-inch MacBook Pros are equipped to take advantage of 87W power adapters, though users won't see any charging speed benefits from the change.

Brydge on Wednesday launched a new update to improve its Brydge Pro+ keyboard with trackpad that recently starting shipping for iPad Pro. AppleInsider goes hands-on with the latest firmware to see how Brydge's improvements have strengthened the user experience of its flagship product.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues around the world, countries are extending periods of national lockdown and increasing the need for people to stay home. AppleInsider has compiled a list of free resources, apps, tools, and services that are still available to use while social distancing.

Wink customers will soon have to pay a monthly subscription fee to access any of the smart home hardware that they have purchased.

Instead of a theater release in May, or a digital rental period, Warner Brothers will release their new movie 'Scoob!' on iTunes for a $25 one-time purchase.

Apple has refreshed the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Magic Keyboard, the start of Apple's online WWDC has been announced, the iPad Pro Smart Keyboard gets a teardown, and your hosts provide a massive roundup of HomeKit and smart home devices.

Apple frequently places movies on sale, and this week is no exception. Here's the latest batch of movies that you can get on the cheap for this Mother's Day weekend.

The fatherhood documentary "Dads" featuring actor Bryce Dallas Howard will be airing on Apple TV+ ahead of Father's Day, with the film set to be available to stream from the service from June 19.

The success of Apple's AirPods line did better than the company "could ever imagine," Apple VP of product marketing Greg Joswiak claims in a profile on the audio accessories' popularity, one that also reveals extensive resources have been put into mapping ears.

Apple is preparing to reopen all four of its Apple Stores in Switzerland on May 12, as part of the iPhone maker's bid to slowly return its retail efforts back to normal around the world.

When OM Montenegro began in 2007 with a team of three, holding a full Sunday meeting seemed a long way off—but not anymore.

With the help of two Scottish special-needs teachers, OM Montenegro passionately improves the lives of children with autism and the lives of their families.

CNA Staff, May 8, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- EWTN Global Catholic Network, the world’s largest Catholic media organization, announced Friday that Andrew Walther – an experienced Catholic journalist, media executive, and advocate for persecuted Christians – has been named president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, Inc. The appointment is effective June 1.

Walther began his Catholic media career as a journalist writing for the National Catholic Register two decades ago. Most recently he has served as vice president for communications and strategic planning at the Knights of Columbus.

In his role as president of the news division, Walther will oversee EWTN’s vast news media platforms, which create content in English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese and Italian. Its holdings include Catholic News Agency, the National Catholic Register, the ACI Group, ChurchPop and EWTN’s lineup of television and radio news programming.

“As well as being an accomplished Catholic journalist and media executive, Andrew Walther brings to this role unique expertise in the global Church,” said EWTN Chairman and CEO Michael P. Warsaw.

“His leadership experience with a global Catholic communications and media operation – and his previous work with the National Catholic Register and EWTN News Nightly – gives him the added advantage of already knowing the Catholic media world and many of the people within the EWTN family. We look forward to having him lead and strengthen our news division,” Warsaw said.

Since 2005, Walther has worked in senior roles at the Knights of Columbus. During his tenure at the Knights, Walther helped launch the organization’s modern communications department, overseeing work with Catholic and secular media outlets, the launch of social media channels and video production, and the organization’s global media work, especially in Europe and the Middle East. He was also heavily involved in the organization’s charitable work and disaster relief initiatives.

Walther also organized and led the Knights’ work on behalf of persecuted Christians in the Middle East, traveling to Iraq several times and successfully leading a public effort to have ISIS’ campaign of persecution declared  a genocide by Secretary of State John Kerry.

His advocacy for persecuted Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East helped shape policy in both the Obama and Trump administrations, and he also helped play a role in forging a bipartisan legislative consensus on behalf of persecuted Christians and other victims of ISIS in the Middle East. Walther’s efforts included working with other governments and the UN as well as with Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim leaders to end violence and persecution and bring relief to persecuted Christian communities.

“Andrew Walther has been a good friend and a trusted colleague for many years,” said Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, who is president of the U.S bishop’s conference and a longtime member of EWTN’s board of governors.

“Andrew is one of the Church’s finest strategic thinkers and a highly respected advocate for international religious liberty. All of this will serve him well as head of the world’s largest Catholic news organization. I wish him great success.”

While working closely over the years with many bishops, dioceses and Catholic organizations in North America, Walther also worked closely with the Vatican on several projects under both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

“Mother Angelica created a network dedicated to ‘the advancement of truth’ and Catholic news is a vital part of this mission,” Walther said Friday.

“I look forward to working with the talented and dedicated team of journalists at EWTN News to provide news from a Catholic perspective and to highlight important stories that might otherwise be overlooked.”

In addition to his roles in media and religious freedom advocacy, Walther also oversaw the Knights’ polling and book publishing operations, which included several New York Times bestsellers. Together with his wife, Maureen, he co-authored “The Knights of Columbus: An Illustrated History,” a book released this year.

CNA Staff, May 8, 2020 / 04:15 pm (CNA).- As parishes and dioceses across the country deal with a drop in collections and the prospects of layoffs amid the pandemic, many parishes have managed to avail themselves of government loans designed to cover eight weeks of payroll expenses.

CBS News reported Friday that an estimated 12,000-13,000 of the 17,000 Catholic parishes in the U.S. had applied for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) payroll loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA), and 9,000 so far had received them.

Guidance from the SBA on eligibility for the loans states that “no otherwise eligible organization will be disqualified from receiving a loan because of the religious nature, religious identity, or religious speech of the organization.”

Religious organizations are eligible for the loans as long as they meet the requirements of Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit and employ 500 or fewer people, the SBA said.

“The PPP isn't about the federal government assisting houses of worship or churches,” Pat Markey, the executive director of the Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference, told CBS News.

“PPP is about keeping people on payrolls, and a large segment of our society [in] the not for profit world...are churches and houses of worship. And they have people on payrolls too. So, if what this is about is keeping people on payrolls, then we all should have availability to do that.”

The Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference did not reply by press time to CNA’s request for additional comment.

Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act March 27 to help relieve the economy during the coronavirus pandemic.

The CARES Act initially authorized some $350 billion in loans to small businesses, intended to allow them to continue to pay their employees. The loans were given on a first come, first serve basis.

The second round of funding, with some $310 billion in additional funds available, began April 27.

The loans were capped at $10 million, were open to businesses with fewer than 500 employees per location, and were intended to cover two months of payroll costs.

The federal government promised to forgive the loans if a business used at least 75% of the funds to maintain its payroll at “pre-pandemic levels” for eight weeks after the loan is disbursed, the New York Times reports.

The remaining money could be used only to pay for certain expenses, such as a mortgage, rent, and utilities, according to the Times.

A survey of Protestant pastors by LifeWay Research found that about 40% had applied for PPP loans with more than half of them reporting being approved.

NPR reports that synagogues have also applied for government funding, though in a smaller proportion— of nearly 4,000 synagogues in the United States, about 250 were approved for PPP loans in the first round of lending, according to surveys by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

The PPP has been subject to some criticism since its launch, including from those who say business owners with criminal records have been excluded from the program thus far.

In addition, several large companies, such as Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, have received multi-million dollar loans through the program. Some of these large companies, such as Shake Shack, have since returned their loans.

Two New York dioceses— Rochester and Buffalo— are suing the Small Business Administration for access to PPP funds, after they were denied loans because of their bankruptcy status.

An SBA rule stipulated that the funds would not go to bankruptcy debtors. Both the dioceses of Rochester and Buffalo have filed for bankruptcy in the past several months, after being named in hundreds of clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed under New York Child Victims Protection Act.