The Bank of Japan (BOJ) ended eight years of negative interest rates and other remnants of its unorthodox policy on Tuesday, making a historic shift away from its focus on reflating growth with decades of massive monetary stimulus. While the …
Mark Carney said he’s lucky he never had to cut interest rates below zero as Bank of England governor because they would have damaged the UK. Carney, who leaves the central bank next month, has long been opposed to negative …
In the Swiss canton of Zug, officials are going to extremes to avoid getting penalized by the world’s lowest interest rate. To minimize the amount of cash on hand that would get hit with a charge, Zug’s treasury postponed recouping …
Cheap money could have unknown consequences for Europe, according to the chief executive officer of Gjensidige Forsikring ASA, Norway’s largest listed insurer. “It’s a sign of sickness for the economies in Europe when rates are this low,” Helge Leiro Baastad, …
Central bankers globally need to realize the risks that extreme monetary policies will backfire, according to Voya Financial Inc.’s Karyn Cavanaugh. “Negative rates are turning out to be a dirt sandwich, especially for Japan,” Cavanaugh, who works as senior market …
European insurers, whose profits are being eroded by Mario Draghi’s* quantitative easing program, face a stress test headache that risks requiring them to set aside more capital, further hurting their ability to make money. The timing of the regulator’s “stress …
Investors will consider hoarding cash in vaults as government bond yields fall deeper into negative territory following the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union, according to Talanx AG, Germany’s third-biggest insurer. “Storing physical cash as an alternative to paying …
The European Central Bank has turned government bonds into one of the riskiest asset classes, prompting Swiss Re AG to move more of its investments into corporate debt, according to the reinsurer’s chief investment officer. “If you’re looking for a …
Europe’s top insurers are selling protection to German banks that hoard billions of euros of cash in vaults to avoid paying a penalty by parking it at the European Central Bank, company executives told Reuters. The sums are so big …
A fragmented Internet, continued experimentation with monetary policy and another round of economic crises in emerging markets top Swiss Re’s latest roundup of emerging risks to watch out for. Beyond those top three, the reinsurance giant covers everything from human-induced …
