BCBS Press release "Basel Committee publishes stocktake report on climate-related financial risk initiatives'", 30 April 2020

FSI Briefs No 6, May 2020. Regulatory actions in the current circumstances need to focus on preserving banks' lending activity without jeopardising their solvency. This means that flexibility in capital requirements, including through the use of regulatory buffers, and capital conservation should go hand in hand. Basel III provides for automatic distribution constraints when capital falls below specific thresholds. In the current context, this may disincentivise firms from following authorities' recommendations to use capital buffers. Blanket distribution restrictions imposed through supervisory action may help address these disincentives to the extent that they are not linked to firms' individual capital positions and thus remove any possible stigma effect. Most authorities have undertaken initiatives in relation to banks' distribution policies in the Covid-19 pandemic environment. However, practices across jurisdictions diverge markedly as regards scope and stringency.

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.

Banks' performance on equity and debt markets since the Covid-19 outbreak has been on a par with that experienced after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. During the initial phase, the market sell-off swept over all banks, which underperformed significantly relative to other sectors. Still, markets showed some differentiation by bank nationality, and credit default swap (CDS) spreads rose the most for those banks that had entered the crisis with the highest level of credit risk. The subsequent stabilisation, brought about by forceful policy measures since mid-March, has favoured banks with higher profitability and healthier balance sheets. Less profitable banks saw their long-term rating outlooks revised to negative. And the CDS spreads of the riskiest banks continued increasing even through the stabilisation phase.

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.

Long-term interest rates have remained low despite a surge in the issuance of sovereign debt to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic.

Inflation pressure could be weak even after consumer demand for non-discretionary goods and services begins to grow as the economy gets back on its feet.

At a time of conflicting narratives, a range of markets from equities to energy to gold may persist in volatility until one narrative gains the upper hand.

Gold and silver prices often move in tandem, but the gap between them widened by 31% January through April in line with a trend that began nine years ago.

Bank of Italy Working Papers by Concetta Rondinelli and Roberta Zizza

Bank of Italy Working Papers by Andrea Gazzani and Alejandro Vicondoa

Bank of England Working Papers by Cristiano Cantore and Lukas Freund

Netherlands Bank DNB Occasional Studies by Peter Wierts and Harro Boven

European Systemic Risk Board Occasional Papers by Greg Ros

Central Bank of Chile Working Papers by Carlos Madeira

Here’s what we should be expecting in the war on Covid-19.

In this nightmarish moment, we’re feeling warm and fuzzy about the cold and calculating Andrew Cuomo.

As college campuses closed and the COVID-19 virus began casting a larger shadow in south central Pennsylvania, members of the nursing and physical therapist assistant programs at Penn State Mont Alto took stock of all the medical personal protection equipment (PPE) items in their labs. The two programs were supplied with hundreds of gloves and dozens of medical gowns and masks, plus other items such as disposable stethoscopes, shoe covers and safety glasses — items no longer needed as the campus transitioned to remote instruction.

The Penn State Mont Alto campus held its annual Academic and Leadership Awards Ceremony online on Sunday, April 19. Eighty-eight students were recognized for their academic achievements and campus leadership during the 2019-20 academic year. Three faculty members and one staff member were also recognized for their above-and-beyond contributions to the learning environment at Penn State Mont Alto.

On cronies, cranks and the coronavirus.

Blocking federal aid is vile, but it’s also hypocritical.

The only fiscal thing to fear is deficit fear itself.

What’s bad for America is sometimes good for the market.

Penn State’s PROmoting School-community-university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience (PROSPER) project is continuing to connect and engage Pennsylvania families and keep schools informed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

David Dowdy, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, will deliver the presentation “Simple Principles for Interpreting Complex Models: How to Make Sense of COVID-19 Projections,” at 4 p.m. via Zoom webinar on Thursday, April 30, as the next presentation in its Dean’s Lecture Series: Perspectives on the Pandemic.

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.

In what could herald a course reversal for the UK's National Health Service, health officials in that country have reportedly asked a team of developers to "investigate" switching its contact tracing app to a cross-platform API provided by Apple and Google.

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.

Early Thursday morning, Apple announced it is awarding $10 million from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund plus manufacturing machinery design assistance to COVID-19 test kit collection equipment manufacturer COPAN Diagnostics.

Instead of every meeting attendee staring at a flat Zoom screen, Apple is looking to the future of video conferencing with Memoji-style avatars arranged in augmented reality around each meeting attendee.

Apple's Jeff Williams says that supply chains are running well and that the company is optimistic about the future for the economy both for itself and for America as a whole.

AppleInsider has rounded up the best 16-inch MacBook Pro deals going on right now, with coupon savings knocking up to $450 off every single model. Whether you're in the market for a standard config or looking for a loaded Core i9 model, it pays to check out the cash discounts.

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

Several European countries, including Switzerland and Germany, are demanding all user data generated by coronavirus contact tracing apps be stored on-device, rather than aggregated on a centralized server.

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.

It's not exactly surprising that with all of the uncertainty in the world, Apple decided that it couldn't provide useful revenue guidance for its fiscal Q3 ending in June. It is unexpected, however, that Apple felt confident in announcing a silver lining to the pandemic -- it expects to sell more Macs and iPads in the summer of 2020 compared to 2019.

Repair site iFixit has shared x-ray photographs of the new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, and they reveal an accessory more complicated than it might appear from the outside.

Following the release of the fourth betas of iOS 13.5 and iPadOS 13.5, Apple has followed through with fourth betas for macOS 10.15.5, watchOS 6.2.5, and tvOS 13.4.5.

A pair of model numbers recently discovered in multiple international regulatory filings hinted at a next-generation Beats headphone, but new information suggests the device may actually be related to an existing product that's already in circulation.

Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf in an interview on Thursday said the chipmaker's relationship with Apple has greatly improved since the two companies ended a bitter legal battle over patent licensing and royalties in 2019.

While Apple has not revealed any viewing figures for Apple TV+, industry sources say the new "Defending Jacob" drama is a hit with higher viewing figures, and audience engagement, than most shows on the service.

Amazon has reissued its popular Apple Watch deal, dropping the Series 5 Watches with Cellular to $399 after a $100 price cut. Multiple styles are on sale and in stock.

Apple is supposedly developing new mental health features for the Apple Watch line that allow the wearable to detect panic attacks, with the capability potentially slated for launch with a next-generation "watchOS 7" this fall.

Before Monday's 13-inch MacBook Pro update, the choice between the 2019 model and the 2020 MacBook Air was very clear. It is less clear today -- but we can help.

Amid one of the worst economic downturns in years, Apple has outperformed most expectations that analysts have placed on it. Just shy of two months into the COVID-19 pandemic, its share price has returned to levels not seen since before the crisis.

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.

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.