city week 2015 press coverage report 19 - 31 march …€¦ · press coverage 19 - 31 march 2015 4...

CITY WEEK 2015

PRESS COVERAGE REPORT

19 - 31 MARCH 2015

CITY WEEK 2015 PRESS COVERAGE 19 - 31 MARCH 2015

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CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY P 3

PRESS COVERAGE INDEX P 4

UK PRINT P 7

BROADCAST P 17

TRADE PRESS P 18

NEWSWIRES P 22

INTERNATIONAL PRESS P 27

OTHER MEDIA P 45

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

As anticipated, City Week 2015 has proved extremely popular among media driven not only by the

calibre of speakers that participated this year, but also the immediate relevancy of the theme of the

event to current global economic issues.

The media coverage of the event was extensive and included numerous articles/mentions in the UK

national press such as Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph and City centric City AM, as well as a

number of international media ranging from The Australian Financial Review and Channel News Asia,

to trade press and major newswires.

One of the significant accomplishments this year in terms of media was the live broadcast of the

event through broadcast partnership with Bloomberg Business. The event was streamed live through

Bloomberg’s network of 320,000 terminals stationed at major financial institutions and corporates

across the world. In addition, there was also live reporting by CNBC as well as great attendance by

other international outlets such as CNN, USA Today and Japan Broadcasting Corporation.

The below press coverage was generated through strong media presence at the event, as well as a

number of interviews that were set up for some key speakers participating at the event. These

include:

- Sir Gerry Grimstone: CNBC, Bloomberg TV, City AM

- Chris Cummings: City AM

- Lord Desai: Bloomberg TV, Share Radio

- Andrea Enria: Bloomberg TV, The Daily Telegraph

- Xavier Rolet: Bloomberg TV

- Ashley Alder: Reuters

- Simon Harris: Bloomberg TV

- Richard Holmes: CNBC

There were also a number of other speakers approached such as Martin Gilbert, Rongrong Huo,

Gerard Lyons, Timothy Adams and Sarah Bloom Raskin, all of who expressed willingness and

availability to be interviewed by media, but the opportunities could not be progressed further due to

delayed responses from respective press officers. James Bullard was also approached with one-to-one

media opportunities, but declined in favour of an open media Q&A session instead, which was

attended by a number of journalists and resulted in numerous articles quoting him.

The press coverage generated is consistently positive throughout, clearly demonstrating the level of

issues being discussed at City Week as well as the seniority and diversity of speakers, which secures

City Week’s place as a truly premier international event.







PRESS COVERAGE INDEX

UK PRINT

Financial Times City Insider: Tact and fiction 27 March 2015

Financial Times Lessons from Sandy aid cyber war games 25 March 2015

City AM HSBC chairman: Tech firms only want your data

25 March 2015

City AM I love you, I want you, have a £4bn tax hike 25 March 2015

The Daily Telegraph Fed's Bullard sees roaring boom for US economy, but nasty shock for markets

24 March 2015

The Daily Telegraph Pensions giant: Brexit would be 'disaster' for UK

24 March 2015

The Wall Street Journal Fed’s Bullard: Zero Rates No Longer Appropriate for U.S. Economy

24 March 2015

The Wall Street Journal Bullard Warns of Risk of Market Disruption 24 March 2015

City AM Yanis Varoufakis cancels City Week speech to go to Athens

24 March 2015

BROADCAST

Bloomberg TV Interview with Lord Desai, Chairman, OMFIF 24 March 2015

Bloomberg TV Interview with Xavier Rolet, CEO, LSE 24 March 2015

CNBC Interview with Sir Gerry Grimstone 24 March 2015

CNBC Interview with Richard Holmes, CEO, Standard Chartered

24 March 2015

CNBC Interview with Martin Gilbert, CEO, Aberdeen Asset Management

24 March 2015

TRADE PRESS

Financial News Regulators cast shadow on US-EU recognition hopes

26 March 2015

Financial News HSBC and Barclays bosses talk fintech disruption

25 March 2015

Financial News FCA talks tough on trade reporting 25 March 2015

Interactive Investor ECB’s Praet optimistic about near-term euro zone growth

25 March 2015







Interactive Investor UK official says IMF inclusion of yuan ‘very live’ issue

24 March 2015

Money Market Money Market takes part in London City Week – the most important financial conference in Britain

24 March 2015

Fundweb Standard Life chief: Finance workers unfairly bashed

23 March 2015

NEWSWIRES

Reuters ECB's Praet optimistic about near-term euro zone growth

25 March 2015

Reuters ECB's Praet urges verbal discipline on Greece crisis

25 March 2015

Reuters UPDATE 1-UK official says IMF inclusion of yuan "very live" issue

24 March 2015

Reuters Fed's Bullard warns of "violent" reaction if markets misjudge rate path

24 March 2015

Bloomberg LSE Presses to Ensure U.K. Is Home to a Global Exchange

24 March 2015

Reuters DIARY-Emerging Markets Economic Events to March 31

23 March 2015

Bloomberg Week Ahead March 23-28 19 March 2015

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

La Nouvelle Tribune City Week 2015, l’événement majeur de la Finance mondiale

31 March 2015

€U Bulletin Casablanca Finance City, a Magnet Attracting World Leading Companies

30 March 2015

La Nouvelle Tribune Casablanca Finance City, un tremplin pour l'investissement en Afrique

26 March 2015

La Nouvelle Tribune Reprise de la croissance : Forte participation du Maroc à la City Week à Londres

25 March 2015

The Sydney Morning Herald need2know: Flat open ahead 25 March 2015

Forbes Capital Flees Europe And Fed Warns - Time To Trim Stocks

25 March 2015

CPI Financial DIFC highlights the role of international financial centres in economic growth at City Week 2015

25 March 2015

Zawya Dubai International Financial Centre

highlights the significant role of

international financial centres in economic

growth at City Week 2015

25 March 2015

Capital.gr ECB's Praet: Eurozone in Cyclical Recovery But Reform Needed

25 March 2015

The Australian Business Review

Bullard warns of market disruption 25 March 2015







Business Insider Australia Fed's Bullard: It no longer makes sense to keeps interest rates at 0%

25 March 2015

The Australian Financial Review

Today's Agenda 24 March 2015

The Business Times Fed's Bullard warns of "violent" reaction if markets misjudge rate path

24 March 2015

Fox Business Bullard: Risk of Upside Inflation in U.S. 24 March 2015

Channel News Asia US economy boom creating upside inflation risk: Fed's Bullard

24 March 2015

St Louis Today Fed’s Bullard says zero U.S. rates no longer appropriate

24 March 2015

Nasdaq Bullard Warns of Risk of Market Disruption 24 March 2015

Nasdaq Gold futures close higher for fifth straight day, amid strong CPI

24 March 2015


Today's Agenda 23 March 2015

OTHER MEDIA

Bobsguide Financial regulators using lessons from Hurricane Sandy in preparation for cyber war games

25 March 2015

MondoVisione Remarks of Deputy US Treasury Secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin At The 2015 City Week International Financial Services Forum

25 March 2015







UK PRINT

Financial Times

By Harriet Agnew

27 March 2015

City Insider: Tact and fiction

Talking one’s own book hit new highs at Tuesday’s City Week conference. A panel of bigwigs were asked to name the next opportunity for UK financial services. Fund management, said Martin Gilbert, CEO of Aberdeen Asset Management — a FTSE 100 asset manager. EU reform, weighed in Sir Gerry Grimstone, chairman of TheCityUK — a trade body that is trying to drive EU reform. Financial infrastructure, said Xavier Rolet, CEO of the London Stock Exchange. To quote Mandy Rice-Davies: “Well he would say that, wouldn’t he?” Meanwhile, HSBC chairman Douglas Flint was asked how the fresh increase in the government’s bank levy (which HSBC already pays a third of) would affect London’s competitiveness. Mr Flint muttered something about how the role of the Treasury’s Financial Services Trade and Investment Board is to ensure that London is competitive. And that if it does that it will attract financial firms of all kinds. A very pro-government answer. Of course nothing to do with panel moderator and FSTIB chairman Charles Roxburgh sitting next to him.

Financial Times

25 March 2015

Lessons from Sandy aid cyber war games Gina Chon in Washington Financial regulators are drawing lessons from responses to natural disasters as they prepare for cyber war games that will simulate breaches at Wall Street and London banks. Lessons from Hurricane Sandy, which hit the northeastern US in 2012 and forced American stock markets to shut down for two days, have already been incorporated into US mock cyber attacks on financial institutions, according to Sarah Bloom Raskin, the number two official at the US Treasury department. Ms Raskin, who was a Federal Reserve governor in 2012, said financial groups needed to create procedures for an orderly shutdown and reboot in the event of a catastrophic cyber breach. “It appeared quite orderly and organised but it required a lot of co-ordination,” Ms Raskin said, recalling the shutdown of the New York and Nasdaq stock exchanges during Hurricane Sandy. “That’s where having relationships with the financial institutions, the exchanges and others regarding how these systems work is really important. You are able to do a lot of advance planning.”







Ms Raskin is to give a speech on cyber security at the International Financial Services Forum in London on Wednesday, part of City Week 2015. For the past year, she has been leading the co-ordination of US government agencies to address growing cyber threats, such as a breach at JPMorganChase in the summer. The US and UK will this year hold their first joint cyber war games, beginning with a simulation focusing on the financial sector. These mock cyber attacks were announced by David Cameron, the UK prime minister, in January before talks with President Barack Obama. Both US and UK officials have also stressed the threat posed by cyber attacks and the need to improve information sharing between the two countries. “A cyber attack shouldn’t be the first time a regulator on one side of the pond is calling a counterpart on the other side,” Ms Raskin said, explaining the need for such simulations. US and UK regulators have already held similar financial sector war games to improve co-operation. In October, officials simulated the failure of a global bank to improve upon lessons learnt from the 2008 financial crisis. However, it is cyber attacks that are increasingly regarded as a critical threat to financial institutions. Third-party technology vendors, which are widely used by banks for a range of services, have been identified as posing some of the greatest potential cyber risks. Hackers breached JPMorgan Chase last year through its Corporate Challenge charity site in a cyber attack that affected more than 76m households. The site was run by a third-party. “You operate with many third parties and given these connections, we are only as strong as our weakest link,” Ms Raskin is expected to say in her speech. She has already stipulated that banks should know all of the third parties that have access to their networks and data, confirm that they have appropriate safeguards, and ensure they are adhering to those policies. Ms Raskin has also urged financial institutions to include cyber security policies in contracts with vendors, so that the rules can be enforced

City AM

HSBC chairman: Tech firms only want your data

by Tim Wallace

25 March 2015

TECHNOLOGY firms offering payment and other finance services are only interested in harvesting your data, not in providing the service itself, HSBC’s chairman Douglas Flint said yesterday.







He warned that this raised privacy and data protection worries, with customer information potentially passed around many more firms.

“It is clear many people who want to get into the payments industry don’t want to get into the payments industry, what they want to get into is the industry of gathering the data of which payments are made by individual customers, and the network value of that, and how many people they can share that with,” he said in a panel discussion at City Week.

“One of the big issues is: whose data is it? What rights do we have to protect it? How do we know how it is used, and for what purposes? When it goes wrong, whose responsibility is it? And the more and more we digitalise, the more we have to be obsessive about data protection and cyber-security.”

But he added that the enormous increase in digital payments will give banks a better paper trail on transactions, and help firms combat fraud and money laundering.

His warning is part of a wider move from banks against FinTech firms.

Flint’s comments come after the British Bankers’ Association argued in a report that non-banks entering finance should face the same consumer protection and financial stability rules.

Barclays’ chief executive yesterday said that the impact of new innovation is only just being felt.

“Until the last few years, our sector had not felt the full disruptive force of technology that other sectors have experienced,” Antony Jenkins told the Morgan Stanley European Financials conference.

City AM

25 March 2015

I love you, I want you, have a £4bn tax hike

TREASURY minister Andrea Leadsom showered praise on the financial services sector at City Week yesterday, telling the global crowd: “It is a Conservative government that will relentlessly focus on providing those pro-growth, pro-business, pro-financial policies.

“You can spread opportunity and prosperity throughout the country,” she gushed. “In short, when you succeed, the UK succeeds.”

Leadsom said last week’s Budget helped finance, with measures for savers and pensioners.

But oddly enough, she forgot the biggest measures in the tax and spending plans – the bank levy.

The £4bn raid on banks funded those other changes, and does not look much like a pro-finance policy.







The 0.21 per cent charge on banks’ balance sheets is almost tailor-made to dissuade foreign banks from doing business here, and to disadvantage UK banks when doing business abroad.

When base rates are 0.5 per cent, a charge of 0.21 per cent on any loan is an enormous burden.

Leadsom, seemingly all for taking more of a slice of the City’s profits, was not quite so keen on taking the Square Mile’s questions following her speech.

The Daily Telegraph

24 March 2015

Fed's Bullard sees roaring boom for US economy, but nasty shock for markets

Investors are betting that the Federal Reserve will take its time before pulling the trigger on interest rate rises. Fed insiders warn that this may be a mistake.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

The US economy will be in full-blown boom by the end of the year and risks overheating unless Federal Reserve lifts interest rates soon, a veteran Fed rate-setter has warned.

“Zero interest rates are no longer appropriate for the US economy. If we don’t start normalizing monetary policy we’ll be badly behind the curve two years from now,” said James Bullard, the head of the St Louis Fed.

Mr Bullard said investors are far too complacent about the pace of monetary tightening and could be in for a nasty shock as the policy cycle turns over coming months.

“I think reconciliation between what markets think and what the committee (FOMC) thinks will have to happen at some point. That's a potentially violent reconciliation and I am concerned about that,” he told a City Week forum in London.

The warning echoes comments this week by the San Francisco Fed’s John Williams, who said the US economy is firing on all-four cylinders. “Things are looking better: in fact, they’re looking downright good. I think that by mid-year it will be the time to have a discussion about starting to raise rates,” he said.

Both men are bell-weather moderates on the monetary spectrum rather than hard-line hawks, indicating where the Fed’s centre of gravity now lies.

Mr Bullard said underlying growth in the US is running at 3.3pc and the unemployment rate is likely drop below 5pc by the third quarter of this year, stoking wage pressures and increasing the risk of a serious error by the authorities.







"With the US economy expected to be going into a boom time there is some risk of an upside surprise on inflation. People have possibly been lulled to sleep in thinking that inflation can’t develop in any circumstance, but that is not what history tells us,” he said.

The latest data shows that the US is tentatively pulling out of deflation after three months of falling prices. The consumer price index rose 0.2pc in February, chiefly due a gentle rise in petrol costs as oil stabilizes.

The 10-year break-even inflation rate – tracked by the Fed as a gauge of expected price rises over the next decade – has jumped to 1.76pc from 1.49pc in January, a clear sign that deflation fears are subsiding.

Rakesh Mohan, the executive director of the International Monetary Fund, said it was far from clear that the Fed would in fact be able to raise rates safely without setting off chaos. “We are entering uncharted waters. Once you are caught in a zero interest rate policy, how can you get out of it without causing a crash,” he told the City Week forum.

Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, warns that the Fed risks repeating the errors of 1937 when it began to raise rates before the recovery was fully entrenched, precipitating a relapse back into depression. “We don’t know - nor does the Fed - exactly how much tightening will knock over the apple cart,” he said.

Yet the evidence is clear that the Fed will soon pull trigger unless forced to back away by a fresh global shock, potentially an emerging market storm as the soaring dollar tightens the noose on $9 trillion of dollar-denominated debt borrowed outside the US.

Fed officials are deeply irked by accusations that they have been targeting equity prices or that they have allowed the institution to become liquidity prop for Wall Street. Some almost relish the chance to show their teeth again in the fight against moral hazard.

Mr Bullard said the Fed’s decision last week to drop the word “patient” from its plans for raising rates marks a new era in US monetary policy, warning that the central bank is now at liberty to strike at any meeting – though any move in April is effectively ruled out.

He also warned that markets had “badly over-emphasized” the importance of the strong US dollar in shaping in Fed policy, insisting that the headwinds from currency appreciation are overwhelmed by the much greater stimulus from cheap oil and ultra-low bond yields.

The spill-over from quantitative easing in the Europe and Japan has driven US borrowing cost below their natural level – given the current stage of the US economic cycle – and is acting a form of unwelcome monetary easing. Officials say this makes it even more imperative for the Fed to tighten soon.

The dramatic dollar rally has stalled over recent days on signs that US exports are starting to suffer but this may prove no more than a pause to catch breath.







The dollar index (DXY) has risen almost 25pc since mid-2014 – spiking to a 12-year high of 100.3 last week – an even sharper rise than the fierce dollar rally of the late 1990s that set off the East Asia crisis and the Russian default.

“We think the bullish trend for the dollar is still in place,” said Ian Stannard from Morgan Stanley. “Our bear scenario is that the euro will fall to $0.90 by the end of the year if we see capital controls or anything like that in Greece.”

The Daily Telegraph

24 March 2015

James Titcomb

Pensions giant: Brexit would be 'disaster' for UK

Standard Life chairman Sir Gerry Grimstone calls for companies to devote efforts to promoting reform in single market

The chairman of one of Britain’s biggest pensions companies has said an exit from the EU would be “disastrous for London and the UK”.

Sir Gerry Grimstone said at a conference in London that “the single market is vital to the UK”, and called on the financial services industry to direct “our whole energy” to promoting membership of the EU.

Standard Life, the FTSE 100 pensions and investment group, was one of the first major British companies to weigh in on the Scottish independence debate, saying it would move south from its Edinburgh headquarters if the UK was broken up.

Sir Gerry’s comments are one of the most forceful from a senior financial services figure on the issue of a potential “Brexit”, although many business leaders have supported Britain’s membership of a reformed EU.

“The single market is vital to the UK, I think [leaving] would be disastrous for London and the UK if the UK were to leave the single market,” Sir Gerry said at the City Week conference.

“Why on earth would we not want to be part of one of the biggest markets in the world? Our whole energy should be devoted to that.”

However, Sir Gerry called for reform of the single market, saying it should be “much more effective”. David Cameron has pledged to negotiate reform ahead of a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU if the Conservatives win the next election.

Sir Gerry said the eurozone was becoming more closely integrated, but that the EU did not have to go down the same route.







“Our [path] should be concerned with free trade and liberalisation, I think we should stay on that,” he said.

“Our friends in the EU don't always appreciate the extent towards which the city supports a very strong, stable eurozone."

The creation of a capital markets union, and the advance of digital finance, create new opportunities to promote financial services across the EU, he added.

The Wall Street Journal

24 March 2015

Jason Douglas

Fed’s Bullard: Zero Rates No Longer Appropriate for U.S. Economy

Bullard says he expects the economy to recover in the second quarter following a soft start to the

year.

LONDON--A top Federal Reserve official said Tuesday the U.S. central bank should begin raising short-term interest rates as soon as possible. James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, told an audience in London that zero rates are no longer appropriate for the U.S. economy, given falling unemployment and the prospect of stronger growth ahead. Mr. Bullard said he expects the economy to recover in the second quarter following a soft start to the year as low gasoline prices fuel consumer spending. He added the European Central Bank's decision to begin buying government bonds is driving down bond yields in the U.S., too, keeping a lid on corporate and household borrowing costs. "These facts put us in a position for normalization of US monetary policy in 2015," Mr. Bullard told the City Week conference. He added raising rates soon will help ensure the Fed doesn't have to raise them faster in future years to contain inflation. "If we don't start normalizing policy now we might be in a position where we are badly behind the curve two years from now," he said. Mr. Bullard isn't currently a voting member of the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee. Fed officials earlier this month signaled they are open to raising interest rates later this year by dropping their assurance that they will be "patient" on tightening policy, a move Mr. Bullard hailed Tuesday as an "excellent" decision.







The Wall Street Journal

24 March 2015

By Jason Douglas Bullard Warns of Risk of Market Disruption LONDON--A top Federal Reserve official said Tuesday that interest-rate expectations in financial markets need to be better aligned with those of Fed officials, warning that reconciling those views could cause "potentially violent" market disruption. James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, told reporters in London that investors are penciling in a later move in interest rates than he expects and a slower pace of tightening in the months and years ahead. His remarks underscore the potential pitfalls that await Fed and other central bank officials as they tiptoe towards calling time on years of ultra-loose monetary policy. Mr. Bullard said investors have misread recent changes to the Fed's interest-rate forecasts as a signal that members of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets monetary policy, have become more pessimistic about the economic outlook. "I'm not anymore dovish than I was," Mr. Bullard said. He explained he had wanted the Fed to raise rates in March but once that date passed he simply switched his preference to June. That doesn't mean he's gloomier about the outlook, he said. "People have to be careful when interpreting these dot movements," he said, referring to Fed charts that show officials' interest-rate forecasts as dots on a grid. Mr. Bullard said investors' rate expectations need to be better aligned with what the Fed's policy-setting panel is expecting, adding he's hopeful that markets and the committee "can come to a meeting of minds' over what the future path of interest rates should look like. But he added there's a risk that achieving that may involve a repeat of the summer 2013 "taper tantrum," when financial markets swung wildly in response to Fed signals about winding down its bond-buying program. "There's going to be a reconciliation and that could be violent," he said. Earlier, in a speech to London's City Week conference, Mr. Bullard said he expects the economy to recover in the second quarter following a soft start to the year as low gasoline prices fuel consumer spending. He said the strength of the dollar doesn't pose a major impediment to growth. He added the European Central Bank's decision to begin buying government bonds is driving down bond yields in the U.S. too, keeping a lid on corporate and household borrowing costs. "These facts put us in a position for normalization of U.S. monetary policy in 2015," Mr. Bullard said.







He added raising rates soon will help ensure the Fed doesn't have to raise them faster in future years to contain inflation. "If we don't start normalizing policy now, we might be in a position where we are badly behind the curve two years from now," he said. Mr. Bullard isn't currently a voting member of the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee. Fed officials earlier this month signaled they are open to raising interest rates later this year by dropping their assurance that they will be "patient" on tightening policy, a move Mr. Bullard hailed Tuesday as an excellent decision.

City AM

24 March 2015

By Tim Wallace

Yanis Varoufakis cancels City Week speech to go to Athens

Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has pulled out of City Week, cancelling his plan to speak to City and global investors about Greece.

Just last week his office was confirming that the high profile former professor would be giving a presentation, titled “Future of Europe: the Greek perspective” this afternoon. But instead he is in Athens to deal with the aftermath of his Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “He’s cancelled the trip but it’s nothing to do with the event itself, it would be an important event to attend under different circumstances,” a spokesman for Varoufakis told City A.M.

“He has to stay here and be on alert because things are changing. It wouldn’t be proper for him to

have a parallel event at this time. The circumstances are constantly evolving and he may have

meetings to attend during the week to review the results of the Prime Minister’s trip to Berlin.”

Varoufakis’ slot on the agenda will be filled by Greece’s ambassador to the UK, Konstantinos Bikas.

However, Varoufakis has an unconventional approach to the crisis and to politics, and is considered

something of a rock star in the sphere of fiscal policy – meaning a touch of star dust may now be

missing from the event.







His dressed-down style has attracted comment from market participants more used to traditional

suited career politicians, as has his past of plain-speaking on the topic of debt relief and crisis

management.

Other speakers at City Week include HSBC chairman Douglas Flint, Treasury minister Andrea

Leadsom and London Stock Exchange chief executive Xavier Rolet.

Standard Life and TheCityUK chairman Sir Gerry Grimstone told City A.M. that the event comes at

a time when the financial services sector needs to show the world it is not rotten.

“The thing chairmen like myself have to get across is that bad things do happen, but it tends to be

bad people doing those things,” he said. “It is a real travesty for other people in financial services, to

imagine that they are caught up in it.”







BROADCAST

Bloomberg TV

Interview with Lord Desai, Chairman, OMFIF

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-03-24/wish-greece-would-leave-the-euro-zone-

desai

Interview with Xavier Rolet, CEO, London Stock Exchange

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-03-24/london-stock-exchange-ceo-eu-membership-is-beneficial

CNBC

24 March 2015

Interview with Sir Gerry Grimstone

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000364199

Interview with Richard Holmes, CEO, Standard Chartered


Interview with Martin Gilbert, CEO, Aberdeen Asset Management




http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-03-24/wish-greece-would-leave-the-euro-zone-desai

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-03-24/wish-greece-would-leave-the-euro-zone-desai










TRADE PRESS

Financial News

26 March 2015

Regulators cast shadow on US-EU recognition hopes The ongoing dispute between the US and EU over recognising one another’s regulatory regimes for

derivatives trading will not be easily solved, European regulators have said, amid urgent calls from

the industry to fix the problem.

... Speaking at the City Week conference in London this week, Tom Springbett, manager of over-the-

counter derivatives reform and post-trade policy ...

Financial News

25 March 2015

HSBC and Barclays bosses talk fintech disruption

Leaders of two of the UK's biggest banks have spoken out about the opportunities and uncertainties

created for their businesses by the rise of disruptive financial technology.

... Flint told an audience at London's City Week conference that “we are in the foothills of a

revolution” as fintech companies disrupt the traditional ...

Financial News

25 March 2015

FCA talks tough on trade reporting

The Financial Conduct Authority is ready to crack down on institutions that fail to comply with new

trade reporting rules, echoing data quality concerns flagged up last month by Europe's top financial

watchdog.

Speaking at the City Week conference in London, Tom Springbett, the FCA's manager of over-the-

counter derivatives and post-trade policy, said ...



http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2015-03-26/us-eu-ccp-regulation-recognition-doubts

http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2015-03-25/barclays-antony-jenkins-and-hsbc-douglas-flint-fintech-disruption

http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2015-03-25/fca-ready-for-trade-reporting-crackdown





Interactive Investor

ECB's Praet optimistic about near-term euro zone growth

Wed, 25th March 2015

LONDON (Reuters) - There is optimism over near-term euro zone cyclical growth but lacklustre

productivity makes the longer-term structural outlook less positive, the European Central Bank's

chief economist Peter Praet said on Wednesday.

"We have a cyclical recovery, (but) there are big structural issues that have to be addressed," Praet

said at the London City Week financial conference.

Interactive Investor

24 March 2015

UK official says IMF inclusion of yuan 'very live' issue

By Ben Blanchard and Patrick Graham

BEIJING/LONDON (Reuters) - Britain weighed in on Tuesday to the debate on anointing the yuan as a

major reserve currency, saying the issue was "very live" after Beijing asked the IMF to include the

currency in its Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket.

The yuan is the world's fifth most-used currency in trade, and Beijing has made almost weekly

strides this year in introducing the infrastructure needed to float it freely on global capital markets.

That has increased speculation that the yuan would join the dollar, yen, pound and euro in the SDR

basket, which defines the value of the IMF's reserve asset unit. Chinese state agency Xinhua said

Premier Li Keqiang had asked the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, to

include the yuan.

"China will speed up the basic convertibility of yuan on the capital account and provide more facility

for domestic individual cross-border investment and foreign institutional investment in China's

capital market," Xinhua paraphrased Li as saying, in a report late on Monday.

Li added that "China hoped to, through the SDR, play an active role in the international cooperation

to maintain financial stability and promote the further opening of China's capital market and

financial area," the report said.







Lagarde said on Friday the yuan would at some point be incorporated in the SDR basket but whether

this was the result of this year's five-yearly review of the basket would depend on members' views.

The United States, worried about China's growing diplomatic clout, has been urging countries to

think twice about joining the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB, which some

see as a challenge to the World Bank and the Manila-based Asian Development Bank.

Britain said earlier this month it would join the AIIB and France, Germany and Italy quickly followed.

On the yuan, David Ramsden, chief economic adviser at the UK Treasury, told the City Week

conference in London that much had changed since the makeup of the SDR basket was last

reviewed in 2010, when China also asked to be considered.

"This is a very live issue, I don’t think I can say more than that," he told a panel discussion. "A lot has

happened since 2010."

The SDR basket will be formally reviewed in the autumn. Any changes would come into effect in

January 2016, and would require a 70 or 85 percent majority on the IMF council.

Money Market

24 March 2015

Money Market takes part in London City Week – the most important financial conference in

Britain

Money Market UK, which belongs to Ausbanc Editorial, is taking part in City Week 2015 for the

fourth consecutive year. The event is being held in the heart of the City of London over three days

and is organised by the British Government through UK Trade Investment and The City UK.

Every year City Week features some of the most prominent international financial speakers, including politicians, regulators, and industry practitioners, who will analyse the current economic climate, not only in the UK, but worldwide. During their speeches and conferences, they will address the main challenges the global economy is facing, its future prospects, as well as the key points with regards to avoiding another financial crisis.

City Week 2015 will also focus on new regulations developed by the G-20 in the past few years, and

on the importance of new technologies that are currently transforming the banking and financial

sector.



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These financial conferences also focus on the consumer side, which is an important factor considering that they have previously been victims of malpractice led by the banking system.

This year City Week features keynote speakers such as Douglas Flint, HSBC Group Chairman; Xavier Rolet, London Stock Exchange’s CEO; and Richard Holmes, Standard Chartered Bank’s CEO for the UK and Europe.

Money Market UK and Ausbanc Editorial have its own stand at the event, located at stall 14 on the exhibition floor. Here they are promoting the newspaper as well as its sister publications from both Europe and America.

Fundweb

23 March 2015

Laura Suter

Standard Life chief: Finance workers unfairly bashed

A few bad apples in the finance world has led to the unfair bashing of the entire industry, says Sir Gerry Grimstone, chairman of insurer Standard Life and lobby group TheCityUK.

“The City gets a bashing, very regrettably, because of the conduct of individual firms or people. It is easy to extrapolate that into thinking the whole barrel is full of rotten apples,” he told CityAM.

His comments come after Chancellor George Osborne targeted the City in his Budget last week, increasing the taxes on banks and other finance groups.

“Bad things do happen, but it tends to be bad people doing those things – it is a real travesty for other people in financial services, to imagine that they are caught up in it,” says Grimstone.

More collaboration is needed in the City, which would benefit the economy, says Legal & General chief Nigel Wilson.

“We need a strong modern UK banking system not one with low and decreasing credit ratings and a diminishing role in the world’s capital markets. The need for contrition will never pass, but the time for collaboration has arrived.”

Grimstone made his comments ahead of City Week, which aims to get more firms to see London as a financial hub.







NEWSWIRES

Reuters

ECB's Praet optimistic about near-term euro zone growth 25 March 2015 (Reuters) - There is optimism over near-term euro zone cyclical growth but lacklustre productivity makes the longer-term structural outlook less positive, the European Central Bank's chief economist Peter Praet said on Wednesday. "We have a cyclical recovery, (but) there are big structural issues that have to be addressed," Praet said at the London City Week financial conference.

Reuters

REFILE-ECB's Praet urges verbal discipline on Greece crisis

Wed Mar 25, 2015

(Adds first name and title of policymaker)

(Reuters) - A top European Central Bank policymaker urged politicians and monetary authorities to show "verbal discipline" on Greece on Wednesday and said the euro zone was suffering from a lack of crisis management tools.

"I think the euro area pays a high price for the incompleteness of the monetary union... It is basically having a lack of crisis preparation," ECB Executive Board member Peter Praet said the London City Week financial conference.

"The problem is that we are still in a crisis environment."

Reuters

UPDATE 1-UK official says IMF inclusion of yuan "very live" issue 24 March 2015 (Adds UK official's comments) By Ben Blanchard and Patrick Graham (Reuters) - Britain weighed in on Tuesday to the debate on anointing the yuan as a major reserve currency, saying the issue was "very live" after Beijing asked the IMF to include the currency in its Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket.



http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=ben.blanchard&

http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=patrick.graham&

http://www.reuters.com/subjects/yuan





The yuan is the world's fifth most-used currency in trade, and Beijing has made almost weekly strides this year in introducing the infrastructure needed to float it freely on global capital markets. That has increased speculation that the yuan would join the dollar, yen, pound and euro in the SDR basket, which defines the value of the IMF's reserve asset unit. Chinese state agency Xinhua said Premier Li Keqiang had asked the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, to include the yuan.

"China will speed up the basic convertibility of yuan on the capital account and provide more facility for domestic individual cross-border investment and foreign institutional investment in China's capital market," Xinhua paraphrased Li as saying, in a report late on Monday. Li added that "China hoped to, through the SDR, play an active role in the international cooperation to maintain financial stability and promote the further opening of China's capital market and financial area," the report said. Lagarde said on Friday the yuan would at some point be incorporated in the SDR basket but whether this was the result of this year's five-yearly review of the basket would depend on members' views. The United States, worried about China's growing diplomatic clout, has been urging countries to think twice about joining the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB, which some see as a challenge to the World Bank and the Manila-based Asian Development Bank. Britain said earlier this month it would join the AIIB and France, Germany and Italy quickly followed. On the yuan, David Ramsden, chief economic adviser at the UK Treasury, told the City Week conference in London that much had changed since the makeup of the SDR basket was last reviewed in 2010, when China also asked to be considered. "This is a very live issue, I don't think I can say more than that," he told a panel discussion. "A lot has happened since 2010." The SDR basket will be formally reviewed in the autumn. Any changes would come into effect in January 2016, and would require a 70 or 85 percent majority on the IMF council.

Reuters

UPDATE 2-Fed's Bullard warns of "violent" reaction if markets misjudge rate path Tue Mar 24, 2015

* Zero rates too low for "relatively booming" U.S. economy

* Small summer hike would still leave policy accommodative

* Concerns over market reaction if expectations don't align (Combines stories, adds quotes, background)

By Marc Jones and Huw Jones







LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) - Unless investors start believing that U.S. interest rates are on the way up there could be a potentially extreme market reaction when they actually do rise, Federal Reserve policymaker James Bullard said on Tuesday.

Bullard said a first rate hike "sometime in the summer" would still leave monetary policy extremely accommodative, and that market expectations should be better aligned with those of the Fed considering the current "boom time" for the U.S. economy.

"I think reconciliation between what markets think and what the committee thinks will have to happen at some point," Bullard told reporters at London's City Week financial conference.

"That's a potentially violent (encounter) ... and I am concerned about that. I am hopeful that markets and the policy committee can come to some kind of meaningful meeting of the minds in the coming months and quarters."

The Fed has been inching towards its first interest rate hike in almost a decade for over 1-1/2 years, but analysts are still trying to guess the exact timing.

Expectations were pushed back again last week after the Fed lowered its growth forecasts and its chair, Janet Yellen, raised concerns about the strength of the dollar.

Bullard has long called for the Fed to start the process of lifting rates back to more normal levels but he is not one of the bank's voting members this year.

"Zero is no longer the appropriate interest rate for the U.S. economy," Bullard said during an earlier panel session, arguing that with economic growth on track to be above 3 percent this year and unemployment falling towards 5 percent, the time was right to lift rates.

The dollar, however, has seen its sharpest fall in years and U.S. government bond yields have dropped since what markets read as last week's more balanced tone from the Fed.

Bullard said he was not more dovish than previously. Removing the word 'patient' from the Fed's policy statement with reference to rate increases was an important step and give more meeting-by-meeting "optionality" to make changes.

He said that changes to the bank's "dot plot" which shows when the bank's members think rates will rise, may also have given a slightly deceptive view. It may have just been a case that members shifted dots purely because rates were not going to rise at that meeting or in April.

Bullard also said that negative bond yields in core European government bond markets were "somewhat surprising" although this was helping suppress U.S. rates and therefore aiding the U.S. economy, which in turn could drive rate rises. (Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by John Stonestreet)







Bloomberg

24 March 2015

By John Detrixhe

LSE Presses to Ensure U.K. Is Home to a Global Exchange

There’s room for only a handful of firms to provide trading venues, clearing and related services around the globe, and the U.K. must ensure one of its companies is among them, according to London Stock Exchange Group Plc’s chief executive officer.

“We believe there is room for four, maybe five, global infrastructure companies,” LSE’s CEO, Xavier Rolet, said Tuesday at the City Week conference in London. “It’s very, very important in the context of the connectivity between the Americas, China as we’ve heard, and Europe, and of course London” that one of these global companies is based in the U.K.

LSE, which at more than $13 billion of market capitalization is the fifth-biggest exchange owner in the world, intends to carry out that role. The company has diversified beyond its roots in equities trading, which now accounts for less than 10 percent of its business, Rolet said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

The company bought FTSE International, an index provider, and has a majority stake in clearinghouse LCH.Clearnet Group Ltd. It purchased Frank Russell Co. last year primarily for its index business.

“A number of participants in our industry, which is an infrastructure industry, are moving toward globalization of its service offering,” Rolet said in an interview. “That is where the growth is, and we’re participating in that.”

About 30 percent of LSE’s revenue comes from North America, while Europe, including the U.K., makes up about 50 percent.

Reuters

23 March 2015

DIARY-Emerging Markets Economic Events to March 31

TUESDAY, MARCH 24

LONDON - City Week 2015 - International Financial Services Forum (to March 26). Speakers:- U.S. Treasury Deputy Secretary, Sarah Bloom Raskin, Reserve Bank of India former deputy governor Rakesh Mohan and Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis. NEW DELHI - Asian Development Bank holds presser on its 2015 outlook BUDAPEST - Central Bank of Hungary rate-setting meeting. Rate decision - 1300 GMT. Statement - 1400 GMT. PRETORIA - The South African Reserve Bank starts its three-day monetary policy committee meeting. RABAT - Central bank of Morocco holds board







meeting. ANKARA - Central bank of Turkey to publish the minutes of March monetary policy committee meeting.

Bloomberg

19 March 2015

Week Ahead March 23-28

- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard speaks on a panel at the City Week

conference in London.







INTERNATIONAL PRESS

La Nouvelle Tribune

31 March 2015

City Week 2015, l’événement majeur de la Finance mondiale http://lnt.ma/city-week-2015-a-londres-levenement-majeur-de-lindustrie-financiere-internationale/ 31/03/15 publié par LNT Comme l’évoquait La Nouvelle Tribune dans son édition du 26 mars dernier (numéro 927) et sur le portail www.lnt.ma, Londres a abrité la semaine passée un forum financier annuel de haute volée, «City Week». Cette manifestation dédiée aux services financiers, a accueilli des personnalités majeures de la Finance, mais aussi des économistes de renom, des représentants des instances de régulation de plusieurs pays, à côté d’hommes politiques d’entrepreneurs et de businessmen. La thématique principale du forum portait sur « le rôle de l’industrie financière et ses services dans la conduite du redressement économique mondial ». Cette conférence internationale de trois jours, organisée depuis cinq ans par « City & Financial Global », « TheCityUK » et le département du Commerce et de l’Investissement du Gouvernement britannique, s’est rapidement imposée comme l’une des principales manifestations sur les services financiers et ses praticiens à l’échelle mondiale. Cette édition a d’ailleurs connu la participation de plus de huit cents délégations et a permis à l’assistance d’écouter les interventions de personnalités comme Douglas Flint, PDG du Groupe HSBC, Xavier Rolet, PDG du London Stock Exchange (la bourse de Londres) ou encore Richard Holmes, PDG du Groupe Standard Chartered Bank pour le Royaume-Uni et l’Europe. En cette occasion, le parlementaire et Secrétaire aux AE du gouvernement britannique, l’Honorable Philip Hammond a déclaré : « En ces temps où le redressement économique affronte de forts vents contraires, le rôle des services financiers comme guide de la croissance mondiale est plus important que jamais », ajoutant qu’il était « enchanté qu’à l’invitation des organisateurs (cités plus haut), des dirigeants politiques et des leaders du secteur financier international se rencontrent à la City Week de Londres pour débattre des réformes financières et d’une plus forte croissance mondiale comme principal sujet de ce forum ». Parmi les sujets débattus durant cette conférence de trois jours, on citera la politique monétaire internationale, la réforme de la régulation à l’échelle mondiale, la digitalisation des services financiers, la finance islamique, etc. Plusieurs panels de discussion ont été organisés avec la participation des représentants de places financières internationales comme Istanbul, Jersey, Dubaï, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong. Casablanca était représentée par M. Saïd Ibrahimi, CEO (Directeur général) de Casablanca Finance City Authority. Ce City Week a été organisé au niveau des RP par la firme Murray, l’un des leaders mondiaux dans les manifestations événementielles et de communication. Mme Malika Shermatova, Directeur de clientèle chez Murray, était en charge de cette édition 2015 de City Week et elle nous a notamment



http://lnt.ma/city-week-2015-a-londres-levenement-majeur-de-lindustrie-financiere-internationale/

http://www.lnt.ma/





déclaré : « City Week est le forum financier annuel majeur au plan mondial. Il s’est imposé comme l’événement le plus important pour les représentants les plus brillants des institutions financières, les opérateurs du secteur financier, les hommes politiques et les régulateurs concernés par l’industrie financière, afin qu’ils se rencontrent échangent des idées et évoquent les tendances à venir. La mission de relations publiques confiée à Murray est une avancée significative pour notre firme récemment opérationnelle à Londres ».

€U Bulletin

Casablanca Finance City, a Magnet Attracting World Leading Companies 30 March 2015 The CEO of the Casablanca Finance City, Saïd Ibrahimi, expounded during the annual City Week 2015 the positive results scored by the financial center since it started its activities three years ago. Over the last three years, 62 international companies, including some world sector leaders, have joined CFC and chosen the city as a regional base for their businesses in Africa, Ibrahimi said during a round table on “Competition and collaboration between global financial centers to create economic growth.” The round table that was attended by senior executives from several international financial centers focused on competition between financial centers and on the benefits likely to be drawn from an enhanced cooperation between established and emerging financial centers. CFC, which is fully aware that the attractiveness and success of a financial center rely heavily on its openness and on its high international connectivity has focused its development strategy on the conclusion of partnerships with other international financial centers in all continents, diversifying thus the areas of its strategic cooperation and encouraging the exchange of expertise. CFC has thus concluded partnership and cooperation accords with the financial centers of Singapore, Luxembourg, the City UK, and Paris. The panelists also discussed the importance of exchanging information on financial services, sharing experience between institutional bodies governing the financial sector in the specific areas of investment funds and private banking, promoting financial research and innovation, and the organizing of training sessions on all financial centers – related trades and operations. All panelists highlighted the significance of the debates as they gave them interesting insights into the latest issues facing the international financial services industry. Mr. Ibrahimi highlighted in statements to reporters after his participation in the City Week Casablanca Finance City’s role as a springboard into Africa and more precisely, the region of north, west and central Africa. “CFC answers the need for an entry point to this region that encompasses 28 countries, with fast growing economies and populations and a huge need for financing and for financial and professional services to support their economic development,” he said, explaining that through CFC, Morocco







wants to provide international investors and companies, looking for a base for their activities and operations in the region, with a platform of choice that facilitates and fosters their business in Africa. This includes a business friendly environment and a world-class regulation that helped attract 62 international companies which were granted the CFC status, he said, recalling that last year, CFC has been selected over 8 other international financial centers, established and emerging centers, by the African Development Bank to host the prestigious Africa 50 fund, which is the biggest fund ever dedicated to infrastructure’s financing in Africa over the next 50 years. This is in itself a great sign of trust and a recognition for CFC as a regional financial center and for its role as a springboard to investment in Africa, he said before highlighting the assets that make of Morocco a privileged location for doing business such as its geographical position, its political stability, which is something quite rare in the region, its strong and multi-faceted relations with African countries, its world-class infrastructures, an excellent air connectivity with all the continents and with most important business and financial centers in the world. He also mentioned among other assets the North African country’s macroeconomic stability, sustainable economic growth, and flourishing economic development with an inflation rate kept below 2% during the last decade, in addition to the network of free trade agreements it has woven with more than 55 countries, offering access to a market of more than one billion consumers. City Week 2015 – the 5th annual event in the series – held March 23-26 on the theme “The Role of International Financial Services in Driving the Global Economic Recovery” addressed several topics at the level of conferences, seminars and round tables. The majority of the delegates at City Week were CEOs and main board directors of the world’s largest banks and other financial institutions, with the balance being made up of senior representatives from international regulators, national treasury departments and multinational corporates that use international financial services.

La Nouvelle Tribune

26 March 2015

Casablanca Finance City, un tremplin pour l'investissement en Afrique Casablanca Finance City (CFC), qui offre aux investisseurs des atouts compétitifs et continue à grimper dans le classement mondial des centres financiers (Global Financial Centers Index), s’érige en un hub incontournable pour les investissements en Afrique, a affirmé mercredi à Londres le directeur général de la « Casablanca Finance City Authority » (CFCA), Said Ibrahimi. Lors d’un panel organisé dans le cadre du Forum mondial des services financiers « City Week 2015″, qui se tient dans la capitale britannique du 24 au 26 mars, M. Ibrahimi a mis l’accent sur la régulation aux normes internationales de la CFC et son positionnement en tant que « plateforme de référence capable de drainer des capitaux étrangers vers l’Afrique et contribuer à son développement ». Le Maroc offre aux investisseurs, en quête de croissance, une connectivité aérienne vers les pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest et Centrale, un positionnement stratégique, une stabilité politique et macro-







économique, des affinités culturelles avec les pays du continent et une présence dans divers domaines, notamment financier et des télécommunications, a ajouté M. Ibrahimi. Il a, en outre, mis en avant les avantages offerts par la CFC aux institutions internationales souhaitant investir, opérer en Afrique et ou cherchant un point d’entrée unique vers le continent. « Le Maroc jouit du respect de la communauté internationale et de la confiance des investisseurs étrangers », a dit M Ibrahimi, affirmant que la « Casablanca Finance City » est « la meilleure plateforme financière dans la région. Elle dispose de tous les atouts compétitifs pour accueillir les investisseurs internationaux désirant opérer en Afrique ». L’offre de la CFC est confortée par les performances de l’économie du Maroc ayant « une dette publique contrôlée, une inflation maitrisée, des infrastructures modernes et un secteur financier dynamique présent dans plus de 30 pays africains », a souligné M Ibrahimi. Pour sa part, M. Karim Hajji, directeur général de la Bourse de Casablanca, a mis l’accent sur l’engouement fort que connait la CFC de la part des investisseurs étrangers, affirmant que « Casablanca Finance City » s’impose actuellement comme un hub financier régional au service du continent africain. « Le Maroc est déjà un investisseur important en Afrique sub-saharienne dans le secteur bancaire et financier ainsi que dans les télécoms, l’immobilier, les mines », a-t-il précisé. Ainsi, « investir au Maroc, à la CFC ou à la place casablancaise (où sont cotées plusieurs sociétés présentes en Afrique) signifie investir dans le développement du continent africain qui offre d’importantes opportunités d’affaires dans presque tous les domaines », a souligné M. Hajji. MM. Ibrahimi et Hajji font partie d’une délégation marocaine qui prend part au Forum mondial des services financiers « City Week 2015″ qui a ouvert ses travaux mardi à Londres avec la participation de plus 800 représentants venant des quatre coins du monde. Placée sous le thème : »Le rôle des services financiers internationaux dans la reprise de l’économie mondiale », cette rencontre internationale du gotha de la finance, regroupe des ministres, des hauts responsables de l’industrie des services financiers internationaux, des représentants des organismes de régulation, des institutions bancaires et d’investissement ainsi que des grands centres financiers et des groupes d’études et de conseils financiers. Ce Forum se veut une plateforme de rencontres et d’échanges entre les prestataires de services financiers du monde et les investisseurs en quête d’opportunités de croissance et d’affaires. Il offre aussi l’occasion aux participants d’échanger les expériences et de débattre de plusieurs thématiques ayant trait aux perspectives de l’économie mondiale, au rôle des services financiers dans le partenariat transatlantique pour le commerce et l’investissement ainsi que l’harmonisation des règles régissant les services financiers. Figurent à l’ordre du jour des débats portant sur l’avenir de la politique monétaire internationale, le rôle de la Chine dans l’économie mondiale, l’expansion des services financiers européens, la







dématérialisation des services financiers grâce au développement des technologies de télécommunication, la concurrence entre les centres des services financiers du monde et l’impact des mutations politiques rapides sur le secteur financiers. Les participants doivent aussi examiner les perspectives de croissance de l’économie mondiale, les opportunités de croissance des services financiers en Afrique, l’impact de la réforme de la retraite dans le monde sur la gestion des centres financiers, la création d’une plateforme dédiée à la finance islamique et les services financiers conçus pour « les villes de demain.

La Nouvelle Tribune

By Afifa Dassouli

25 March 2015

Reprise de la croissance : Forte participation du Maroc à la City Week à Londres DNES à Londres Londres, place mondiale de la Finance, connaît cette semaine un événement majeur, la « City Week », organisée du 24 au 26 mars sur le thème aussi prégnant qu’actuel : « Le rôle des services de l’industrie financière internationale dans la conduite du redressement économique mondial». Ce forum, annuel, se tient au « Mermaid Conference and Event Centre », en plein cœur de la City, non loin de la célèbre Saint Paul Cathedral, dans ce quartier d’affaires de renommée mondiale où se trouvent les plus grandes banques, fonds d’investissements et organisations financières de la planète. City Week est organisée grâce à un partenariat entre le Gouvernement britannique et « CityUK- City & Financial ». Son comité d’organisation se compose notamment des représentants du département du Commerce et de l’Investissement britannique, du Trésor et de CityUK. La manifestation est placée sous le patronage de personnalités qui comptent parmi les plus brillantes et célèbres de la Finance mondiale. Lors de son édition 2014, City Week avait accueilli plus de 800 délégations venues de 55 pays. Le Forum se déroule sur deux jours dédiés aux conférences, communications et autres débats. Une troisième journée est consacrée aux rencontres « B to B » préalablement organisées entre les participants. Pour ce forum 2015, on note de nouveau la présence de plusieurs centaines de participants venus des quatre coins de la planète, pour écouter les interventions de conférenciers prestigieux. En effet, City Week offre l’opportunité aux managers et PDG des grandes banques et institutions financières et aux leaders économiques du monde entier de réfléchir au devenir des marchés financiers internationaux. Participent à ce forum également les représentants des départements ministériels et institutions financières publiques de dizaines d’Etats. Dans le contexte d’une forte instabilité géopolitique, de l’atonie de la croissance dans la Zone Euro et les faibles perspectives de sa relance, City Week 2015 aborde donc des sujets pressants. Il s’agit notamment des voies du renforcement du redressement économique en Europe, mais aussi la problématique de la participation du Yuan chinois et de la Finance islamique à la relance de la croissance économique mondiale. Des questions d’actualité qui justifient amplement la présence







d’une forte délégation marocaine à cette manifestation de la finance internationale sur la place de Londres. Ils sont venus, ils sont tous là En effet ce forum de la City connaît la participation de plusieurs représentants d’institutions financières, publiques et privées marocaines, dont notamment : Saïd Ibrahimi et Lamia Merzouki, Casablanca Finance City Authority, Fathia Bennis, Maroclear, Asmaa Bennani, Bank Al-Maghrib, Karim Hajji, Bourse des Valeurs de Casablanca, Mohamed Bouataf, conseiller économique de l’Ambassade du Maroc à Londres, Hicham Cheddadi, Conseil déontologique des Valeurs mobilières, Amine Amor BMCE Gestion, Abdelmalek Benabdeljalil, salle des marchés BMCE Capital, Chakib Erquisi, Salle des marchés Attijariwafa bank, etc. Parmi les conférenciers, on citera notamment Timothée Adams, PDG de l’International Institue of Finance, Karl-Ernst Brauner, DGA à l’Organisation Mondiale du Commerce, Victor Constancio, vice-président de la BCE, Andréa Enria, président de l’autorité bancaire européenne, Douglas Flint, président, Groupe HSBC, plc, Saïd Ibrahimi, Directeur général CFC Authority, Karim Hajji, Directeur général BVC, Liu Xiaoming, ambassadeur de Chine à Londres et des dizaines d’autres intervenants prestigieux. Un événement majeur dans le contexte international fortement évolutif et sur lequel La Nouvelle Tribune ne manquera pas de revenir très prochainement.

The Sydney Morning Herald

need2know: Flat open ahead

25 March 2015

US stocks drifted lower on Tuesday, as equities kept in a tight range. Declines on the Nasdaq were held in check by a boost from Google, up 2.3 per cent to $US578.24. Morgan Stanley's chief financial officer is leaving the bank to join Google.

Freeport-McMoRan shares fell 1.1 per cent to $US19.13 after the miner slashed its quarterly dividend by 84 per cent, to 5 cents a share from 31.25 cents, citing lower commodity prices.

Federal Reserve policymaker James Bullard said "zero is no longer the appropriate interest rate for the US economy" during a panel session at London City Week. Monetary policy would still be "extremely accommodative" even if the central bank began with a small increase in rates "sometime in the summer," he added.







Forbes

25 March 2015

Capital Flees Europe And Fed Warns - Time To Trim Stocks

“Unless investors start believing that U.S. interest rates are on the way up there could be a potentially extreme market reaction when they actually do rise, Federal Reserve policymaker James Bullard said on Tuesday.

Bullard said a first rate hike “sometime in the summer” would still leave monetary policy extremely accommodative, and that market expectations should be better aligned with those of the Fed considering the current “boom time” for the U.S. economy.

“I think reconciliation between what markets think and what the committee thinks will have to happen at some point,” Bullard told reporters at London’s City Week financial conference.

“That’s a potentially violent (encounter) … and I am concerned about that. I am hopeful that markets and the policy committee can come to some kind of meaningful meeting of the minds in the coming months and quarters.”

For full article, please go to http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntobey/2015/03/25/capital-flees-

europe-and-fed-warns-time-to-trim-stocks/

CPI Financial

25 March 2015

DIFC highlights the role of international financial centres in economic growth at City Week 2015

Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) concluded its participation at the annual City Week

forum in London.The three day event focusing on ‘The Role of International Financial Services in

Driving the Global Economic Recovery’ ran from 23 - 26 March at the Mermaid Conference &

Events Centre, London.

As part of DIFC’s participation, Chirag Shah, Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer, Dubai

International Financial Centre (DIFC) Authority, headlined a panel discussion on ‘Competition and

Collaboration between Global Financial Centres to Create Economic Growth’. Hosting thought

leaders from a number of international financial centres, including Istanbul Financial Centre

Initiative, Casablanca Finance City Authority, Jersey Finance, Abu Dhabi Global Market Financial

Services Regulations Bureau and Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, the panelists

deliberated on topics such as financial regulation, financial reporting, corporate governance,

education, training and qualifications, benefits of collaboration between established and emerging

financial centres, and the competition between financial centres.

Commenting on DIFC’s participation at City Week, Shah said, “We are pleased to have participated

in this significant event that featured two days of cutting edge conferences, seminars and



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exclusive networking opportunities. The forum enabled us to gain insights into the latest issues

facing the international financial services industry.

“DIFC provides the perfect base to access regional wealth and investment opportunities. Our

engagement at the event reiterates DIFC’s status as a destination of choice for regional and

international financial services firms looking to access the growing opportunities available in the

Middle East, Africa and South Asia.”

Furthermore, Chirag Shah moderated a panel titled ‘Dubai as the Gateway to the MEASA Region.’

Featuring 20 industry experts, the panel discussion explored the potential of the MEASA region and

DIFC’s significant role as the gateway to those markets. It explored the impact on UAE and Qatar

having recently been upgraded to Emerging Market status which had a direct correlation with

investor confidence, both from global investors and from regional investors.

The panelists also discussed the increasing demand for financial services in the MEASA region due to

the implementation of economic policies, strengthening of institutional quality, particularly of the

legal system.

The panel concluded with a discussion on the steps to be taken for driving Islamic finance as a

mainstream financial product offering.

Zawya

25 March 215

Dubai International Financial Centre highlights the significant role of international financial centres

in economic growth at City Week 2015

Chirag Shah, Chief Strategy Business Development Officer, DIFC

Dubai - Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) concluded its participation at the annual City

Week forum in London underpinning its status as a mature global financial hub connecting the

Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) markets with the economies of Europe, Asia and the

Americas.

The three day event focusing on 'The Role of International Financial Services in Driving the Global

Economic Recovery' ran from 23 – 26 March at the Mermaid Conference & Events Centre, London.

As part of DIFC's participation, Chirag Shah, Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer, Dubai

International Financial Centre (DIFC) Authority, headlined a panel discussion on'Competition and

Collaboration between Global Financial Centres to Create Economic Growth'.Hosting thought

leaders from a number of international financial centres, including Istanbul Financial Centre

Initiative, Casablanca Finance City Authority, Jersey Finance, Abu Dhabi Global Market Financial



http://www.zawya.com/middle-east/company/profile/1000487/Dubai_International_Financial_Centre/







Services Regulations Bureau and Hong KongSecurities and Futures Commission, the panelists

deliberated on topics such as financial regulation, financial reporting, corporate governance,

education, training and qualifications, benefits of collaboration between established and emerging

financial centres, and the competition between financial centres.

Commenting on DIFC's participation at City Week, Shah said, "We are pleased to have participated

in this significant event that featured two days of cutting edge conferences, seminars and

exclusive networking opportunities. The forum enabled us to gain insights into the latest issues

facing the international financial services industry.

"DIFC provides the perfect base to access regional wealth and investment opportunities.Our

engagement at the eventreiterates DIFC's status as a destination of choice for regional and

international financial services firms looking to access the growing opportunities available in the

Middle East, Africa and South Asia."

Furthermore, Chirag Shah moderated a panel titled 'Dubai as the Gateway to the MENASA Region.'

Featuring 20 industry experts, the panel discussion explored the potential of the MENASA region and

DIFC's significant role as the gateway to those markets. It explored the impact on UAE and Qatar

having recently been upgraded to Emerging Market status which had a direct correlation with

investor confidence, both from global investors and from regional investors.

The panelists also discussed the increasing demand for financial services in the MENASA region due

to the implementation of economic policies, strengthening of institutional quality, particularly of the

legal system.

The panel concluded with a discussion on the steps to be taken for driving Islamic finance as a

mainstream financial product offering.

DIFC's high standard of laws, rules and regulations, 100 percent foreign ownership, zero percent tax

rate on income and profits and wide network of double taxation treaties available to UAE

incorporated entities make it the ideal platform for players from advanced financial centres to take

advantage of the region's rapidly growing demand for financial and business services.

A much-awaited forum in the financial services events calendar, City Week was organised under a

partnership between the UK Government, TheCityUK and City & Financial. The 2014 edition

attracted more than 800 delegates from over 55 countries.







Capital.gr

25 March 2015

ECB's Praet: Eurozone in Cyclical Recovery But Reform Needed

LONDON--The eurozone economy is experiencing a recovery but governments in the currency union

need to push ahead with reforming their economies, the European Central Bank's chief economist

said Wednesday.

Peter Praet told an audience in London that forging a durable recovery requires a "comprehensive

policy response," and not just central-bank stimulus.

"We have a cyclical recovery," Mr. Praet told the City Week conference. Surveys Tuesday showed

business activity in the bloc rose in March, led by Germany, the region's largest economy.

But Mr. Praet said the eurozone still has "deep structural problems" that still have to be addressed.

"The biggest risk we have is that structural reforms will be delayed," he said.

The ECB earlier in March began purchasing 60 billion euros ($65.6 billion) a month of government

bonds and other assets in a bid to fuel growth and stoke inflation in the 19-member currency union.

ECB President Mario Draghi said Monday the central bank will keep purchasing assets for at least 18

months and until it is convinced that annual inflation will stabilize near 2%.

Officials have long urged governments to reform their labor markets and economies to improve

competitiveness and drive faster growth

The Australian Business Review

Bullard warns of market disruption

by: Dow Jones newswires

March 25, 2015 12:30AM

A top Federal Reserve official said Tuesday that interest-rate expectations in financial markets need to be better aligned with those of Fed officials, warning that reconciling those views could cause "potentially violent" market disruption. James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, told reporters in London that investors are penciling in a later move in interest rates than he expects and a slower pace of







tightening in the months and years ahead. His remarks underscore the potential pitfalls that await Fed and other central bank officials as they tiptoe towards calling time on years of ultra-loose monetary policy. Mr Bullard said investors have misread recent changes to the Fed's interest-rate forecasts as a signal that members of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets monetary policy, have become more pessimistic about the economic outlook. "I'm not anymore dovish than I was," Mr Bullard said. He explained he had wanted the Fed to raise rates in March but once that date passed he simply switched his preference to June. That doesn't mean he's gloomier about the outlook, he said. "People have to be careful when interpreting these dot movements," he said, referring to Fed charts that show officials' interest-rate forecasts as dots on a grid. Mr Bullard said investors' rate expectations need to be better aligned with what the Fed's policy-setting panel is expecting, adding he's hopeful that markets and the committee "can come to a meeting of minds" over what the future path of interest rates should look like. But he added there's a risk that achieving that may involve a repeat of the summer 2013 "taper tantrum," when financial markets swung wildly in response to Fed signals about winding down its bond-buying program. "There's going to be a reconciliation and that could be violent," he said. Earlier, in a speech to London's City Week conference, Mr Bullard said he expects the economy to recover in the second quarter following a soft start to the year as low gasoline prices fuel consumer spending. He said the strength of the dollar doesn't pose a major impediment to growth. He added the European Central Bank's decision to begin buying government bonds is driving down bond yields in the US too, keeping a lid on corporate and household borrowing costs. "These facts put us in a position for normalization of US monetary policy in 2015," Mr Bullard said. He added raising rates soon will help ensure the Fed doesn't have to raise them faster in future years to contain inflation. "If we don't start normalizing policy now we might be in a position where we are badly behind the curve two years from now," he said. Mr Bullard isn't currently a voting member of the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee. Fed officials earlier this month signaled they are open to raising interest rates later this year by dropping their assurance that they will be "patient" on tightening policy, a move Mr Bullard hailed Tuesday as an excellent decision.







Business Insider Australia

25 March 2015

By Marc Jones

Fed's Bullard: It no longer makes sense to keeps interest rates at 0%

LONDON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve policymaker James Bullard said on Tuesday that zero per cent

interest rates were no longing appropriate in the United States and that a rate hike in the “summer”

would still leave policy extremely accommodative.

“Zero is no longer the appropriate interest rate for the U.S. economy,” Bullard said during a panel

session at London City Week.

Bullard is the president of the St. Louis Fed, and is an alternate member of the FOMC but is not a

voting member in 2015.

Monetary policy would still be “extremely accommodative” even if the central bank began with a

small increase in rates “sometime in the summer,” he added and predicted that the U.S. economy

would grow at over 3 per cent this year.

Bullard’s comments come after Fed vice chair Stanley Fischer said in New York on Monday that it will

likely be appropriate for the Fed to begin raising interest rates at some point this year.

(Reporting by Marc Jones and Huw Jones)


24 March 2015

Today's Agenda

Australia weekly consumer confidence, RBA official Malcolm Edey speech at the ASIC Annual Forum 2015, Sydney; China HSBC flash manufacturing PMI; US consumer prices, home prices, Richmond Fed survey, new home sales, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard speaks on a panel at the City Week conference in London; Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer presents the central bank's annual accounts; Mines and Money Hong Kong conference (speakers include Neville Power, chief executive officer of Fortescue Metals Group); Morocco rate decision, Nigeria rate decision, Hungary rate decision.







For full article, please go to http://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/global-equities-flat-us-slides-20150323-1m59sq?login_token=GI6vVwAqcUzfsrliJnsa9g-KCNBkifVyh_ztI5hshs_s3YpMErsv58e8LsKvtd08BDfitnbOYB1tH5LljIQfww1649855&member_token=UVe8-xMPCrGctGLnf-gI251DaDwO7_w99eua7irTqxmcCFzPB5jWEwgGt3YAp_2_eN0UIHH_cOOkkbrneDBamg1649855&expiry=1458846583

The Business Times

24 March 2015

Fed's Bullard warns of "violent" reaction if markets misjudge rate path

[LONDON] Unless investors start believing that US interest rates are on the way up there could be a potentially extreme market reaction when they actually do rise, Federal Reserve policymaker James Bullard said on Tuesday.

Mr Bullard said a first rate hike "sometime in the summer" would still leave monetary policy extremely accommodative, and that market expectations should be better aligned with those of the Fed considering the current "boom time" for the US economy.

"I think reconciliation between what markets think and what the committee thinks will have to happen at some point," Mr Bullard told reporters at London's City Week financial conference. "That's a potentially violent (encounter) ... and I am concerned about that. I am hopeful that markets and the policy committee can come to some kind of meaningful meeting of the minds in the coming months and quarters."

The Fed has been inching towards its first interest rate hike in almost a decade for over 1-1/2 years, but analysts are still trying to guess the exact timing.

Expectations were pushed back again last week after the Fed lowered its growth forecasts and its chair, Janet Yellen, raised concerns about the strength of the dollar.

Mr Bullard has long called for the Fed to start the process of lifting rates back to more normal levels but he is not one of the bank's voting members this year.

"Zero is no longer the appropriate interest rate for the US economy," Mr Bullard said during an earlier panel session, arguing that with economic growth on track to be above 3 per cent this year and unemployment falling towards 5 per cent, the time was right to lift rates.

The dollar, however, has seen its sharpest fall in years and US government bond yields have dropped since what markets read as last week's more balanced tone from the Fed.

Mr Bullard said he was not more dovish than previously. Removing the word 'patient' from the Fed's policy statement with reference to rate increases was an important step and give more meeting-by-meeting "optionality" to make changes.

He said that changes to the bank's "dot plot" which shows when the bank's members think rates will rise, may also have given a slightly deceptive view. It may have just been a case that members shifted dots purely because rates were not going to rise at that meeting or in April.



http://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/global-equities-flat-us-slides-20150323-1m59sq?login_token=GI6vVwAqcUzfsrliJnsa9g-KCNBkifVyh_ztI5hshs_s3YpMErsv58e8LsKvtd08BDfitnbOYB1tH5LljIQfww1649855&member_token=UVe8-xMPCrGctGLnf-gI251DaDwO7_w99eua7irTqxmcCFzPB5jWEwgGt3YAp_2_eN0UIHH_cOOkkbrneDBamg1649855&expiry=1458846583










Mr Bullard also said that negative bond yields in core European government bond markets were "somewhat surprising" although this was helping suppress US rates and therefore aiding the US economy, which in turn could drive rate rises.

Fox Business

24 March 2015

Bullard: Risk of Upside Inflation in U.S.

Federal Reserve policymaker James Bullard said on Tuesday the "boom time" in the United States economy was creating the possibility that inflation could surprise on the upside.

"With the U.S. economy expected to be going into a boom time there is some upside risk to inflation," Bullard said during a panel discussion at London City Week.

He added that policymakers and economists should not "go to sleep" and ignore the risks of a rise in inflation.

Channel News Asia

24 March 2015

US economy boom creating upside inflation risk: Fed's Bullard

Federal Reserve policymaker James Bullard said on Tuesday the "boom time" in the United States economy was creating the possibility that inflation could surprise on the upside.

LONDON: Federal Reserve policymaker James Bullard said on Tuesday the "boom time" in the United States economy was creating the possibility that inflation could surprise on the upside.

"With the U.S. economy expected to be going into a boom time there is some upside risk to inflation," Bullard said during a panel discussion at London City Week.

He added that policymakers and economists should not "go to sleep" and ignore the risks of a rise in inflation.







St Louis Today

24 March 2015

FED'S BULLARD SAYS ZERO U.S. RATES NO LONGER APPROPRIATE

LONDON • Federal Reserve policymaker James Bullard said on Tuesday that zero percent interest rates were no longing appropriate in the United States, and that a rate hike in the summer would still leave policy extremely accommodative.

"Zero is no longer the appropriate interest rate for the U.S. economy," Bullard said during a panel session at London City Week.

Monetary policy would still be "extremely accommodative" even if the central bank began with a small increase in rates "sometime in the summer," he added.

The Fed is inching towards its first interest rate hike in almost a decade. Analysts are trying to guess its timing, having pushed back expectations last week after Fed chair Janet Yellen raised concerns about the dollar's recent strength.

Bullard, one of the central bank's long-time advocates of slowly raising rates, said that with the United States economy expected to grow at over three percent and inflation being pushed lower by uncontrollable factors, the time was right.

Removing the word 'patient' with reference to rate increases from the Fed's policy statement last week was also an important move.

He said it would give the Fed "more optionality" and allow it to make decisions "meeting by meeting" based on the strength of economic data.

Nasdaq

24 March 2015

Bullard Warns of Risk of Market Disruption

LONDON--A top Federal Reserve official said Tuesday that interest-rate expectations in financial markets need to be better aligned with those of Fed officials, warning that reconciling those views could cause "potentially violent" market disruption. James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, told reporters in London that investors are penciling in a later move in interest rates than he expects and a slower pace of tightening in the months and years ahead.

His remarks underscore the potential pitfalls that await Fed and other central bank officials as they tiptoe towards calling time on years of ultra-loose monetary policy.







Mr. Bullard said investors have misread recent changes to the Fed's interest-rate forecasts as a signal that members of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets monetary policy, have become more pessimistic about the economic outlook.

"I'm not anymore dovish than I was," Mr. Bullard said. He explained he had wanted the Fed to raise rates in March but once that date passed he simply switched his preference to June. That doesn't mean he's gloomier about the outlook, he said.

"People have to be careful when interpreting these dot movements," he said, referring to Fed charts that show officials' interest-rate forecasts as dots on a grid.

Mr. Bullard said investors' rate expectations need to be better aligned with what the Fed's policy-setting panel is expecting, adding he's hopeful that markets and the committee "can come to a meeting of minds' over what the future path of interest rates should look like.

But he added there's a risk that achieving that may involve a repeat of the summer 2013 "taper tantrum," when financial markets swung wildly in response to Fed signals about winding down its bond-buying program.

"There's going to be a reconciliation and that could be violent," he said.

Earlier, in a speech to London's City Week conference, Mr. Bullard said he expects the economy to recover in the second quarter following a soft start to the year as low gasoline prices fuel consumer spending. He said the strength of the dollar doesn't pose a major impediment to growth.

He added the European Central Bank's decision to begin buying government bonds is driving down bond yields in the U.S. too, keeping a lid on corporate and household borrowing costs.

"These facts put us in a position for normalization of U.S. monetary policy in 2015," Mr. Bullard said.

He added raising rates soon will help ensure the Fed doesn't have to raise them faster in future years to contain inflation.

"If we don't start normalizing policy now we might be in a position where we are badly behind the curve two years from now," he said.

Mr. Bullard isn't currently a voting member of the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee.

Fed officials earlier this month signaled they are open to raising interest rates later this year by dropping their assurance that they will be "patient" on tightening policy, a move Mr. Bullard hailed Tuesday as an excellent decision.







Nasdaq

24 March 2015

Gold futures close higher for fifth straight day, amid strong CPI

Gold future prices edged up on Tuesday posting its fifth consecutive daily gain, as consumer prices in the U.S. for February rebounded from the previous month.

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for April delivery rose 3.50 or 0.29% to 1,191.20. Gold prices wavered on Tuesday between a high of 1,194.50 in U.S. morning trading and a low of 1,184.70 shortly thereafter.

The Labor Department on Tuesday said its Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.2% for February, one month after declining 0.1%. The slight uptick last month ended a three-month streak of declines. On a year-over-year basis the CPI remained unchanged from its February 2014 level, though analysts had forecasted it to slip by 0.1% from last year's figure. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy costs, moved up by 0.2% increasing at the same rate as it had a month earlier. On a year-over-year basis, however, core CPI is up 1.7% from its level last year at this time.

Following last week's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), Fed chair Janet Yellen indicated that the timing of a potential interest rate hike could be "data dependent," hinging on reasonable wage and GDP growth, as well as continued reductions in unemployment. In addition, the Fed wants to see inflation continue to increase toward its target rate of 2%.

Though Yellen indicated that it is likely that the Fed will raise interest rates at some point this year, the hike will not occur until after its next meeting in April at the earliest. The Fed has not raised short-term interest in nearly a decade.

Also on Tuesday, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis president James Bullard indicated that the timing is right to raise the Federal Funds Rate above a level near 0%.

"Zero is no longer the appropriate interest rate for the U.S. economy," Bullard said during a panel session at London City Week.

Echoing comments made by Federal Reserve vice chairman Stanley Fischer a day earlier, Bullard indicated that the policy actions from the Fed could be "extremely accommodative," to market conditions and that lift-off could begin with small increases.

In its report released last week, the FOMC forecasted that interest rates could rise over the next several years at a rate slower than had previously been anticipated. The announcement likely drew applause from long-term gold investors. In periods of increasing interest rates, the precious metal struggles to compete with yield bearing assets.

In early trading, gold prices remained relatively unchanged in spite of disappointing data in China. The flash HSBC/Markit Purchasing Manager's Index fell to 49.2 in March, slightly lower than February's figure of 50.7. China is the world's second-largest purchaser of gold behind India.







Elsewhere, silver futures for May delivery inched up 0.077 or 0.46% to 16.968 a troy ounce.

Copper futures for May delivery rose 0.011 or 0.39% to 2.801 a pound. One day earlier, copper reached a three-month high at 2.9145 amid expectations of strong data in China. Copper is used extensively in manufacturing and construction in Asia's largest nation and is extremely susceptible to economic data in China.


23 March 2015

Today's Agenda

Australia weekly consumer confidence, RBA official Malcolm Edey speech at the ASIC Annual Forum 2015, Sydney; China HSBC flash manufacturing PMI; US consumer prices, home prices, Richmond Fed survey, new home sales, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard speaks on a panel at the City Week conference in London; Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer presents the central bank's annual accounts; Mines and Money Hong Kong conference (speakers include Neville Power, chief executive officer of Fortescue Metals Group); Morocco rate decision, Nigeria rate decision, Hungary rate decision.







OTHER MEDIA

FX Street

Daily Forex Fundamental Overview

30 March 2015

Despite negative expectations, consumer prices in the world’s most powerful economy were

published better than initially projected in February of this year. Moreover, the annual CPI exited the

negative territory it fell into last month, while showing a zero growth. Moreover, inflation was at

0.2% on month-to-month basis and in line with estimates. Meanwhile, St. Louis Fed President James

Bullard announced that the Federal Reserve should raise interest rates as soon as possible, stressing

that low rates are not appropriate for growing US economy any more. Speaking at City Week

conference in London, he also gave a prediction that US economy will gain more momentum in the

second quarter of this year after a slow-down in January-March, helped by lower prices of oil and a

subsequent increase in consumer spending.

Bobsguide

25 March 2015

Financial regulators using lessons from Hurricane Sandy in preparation for cyber war games

Financial regulators are taking note of responses to natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy, as they prepare for cyber war games that will simulate mock breaches at banks in Wall Street and London.

The Financial Times (FT) reports that number two official at the US Treasury Department, Sarah Bloom Raskin has said the lessons learnt from Hurricane Sandy have already been incorporated into US mock cyber attacks on financial institutions.

Hurricane Sandy, which was the most destructive hurricane to hit the north eastern coast of the US in 2012, severely disrupted financial dealings in the US and forced the American stock markets to shut down for two days.

According to the FT, Raskin who was previously a Federal Reserve governor in 2012, said financial groups need to create procedures for an orderly shutdown and reboot in the event of a high-impact cyber breach.

Speaking about the shutdown of the NASDAQ and New York stock exchanges during Hurricane Sandy, Raskin said: “It appeared quite orderly and organised but it required a lot of co-ordination. That’s where having relationships with the financial institutions, the exchanges and others regarding how these systems work is really important.”







For the past year Raskin has been leading the co-ordination of US government agencies to address growing cyber threats and is due to give a speech on cyber security during the International Financial Services Forum at City Week 2015 in London today.

The preparations are being put in place for the upcoming cyber war games which will be held jointly by the UK and US this year and will begin with a simulation focusing on the financial sector. The mock cyber attacks were announced by David Cameron in January this year, before talks with Barack Obama.

US and UK regulators have both stressed the importance of greater information sharing between the two countries and the severity of threats posed by cyber attacks and in October last year, US and UK regulators simulated the failure of the global bank to improve upon the lessons learnt from the 2008 financial crisis.

“A cyber attack shouldn’t be the first time a regulator on one side of the pond is calling a counterpart on the other side,” Raskin told the FT.

Most large companies regularly put themselves and their IT staff through exercises designed to expose their weaknesses, however, war games are the next level of these tests because they require staff to get more actively involved and test their ability to deal with stress and pressure.

According to the FT, Raskin also urges financial institutions to include cyber security policies in contracts with vendors because third-party technology vendors, which are widely used by a number of banks, have been recognised as posing some of the greatest potential cyber risks. “You operate with many third parties and given these connections, we are only as strong as our weakest link,” Raskin expected to say in her speech today.

MondoVisione

Remarks of Deputy US Treasury Secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin At The 2015 City Week

International Financial Services Forum

Date 25/03/2015

Good morning. Thank you Mr. Jermey, and thank you to the Board of Patrons of City Week for inviting me to speak here today. City Week provides an important forum for policy, thought, and business leaders to come together and discuss the most pressing issues facing the financial sector. I am glad to play a part in this year’s event.

The great value of this program comes in its breadth. Topics covered yesterday ranged from digitalization of financial services to political risk in a rapidly changing geo-political environment. Today you’ll tackle where we are with global regulatory reform as well as competition and collaboration between global financial centers to create economic growth. I would like to add to this agenda by discussing an issue underlying all of these matters; an area that certainly affects







global economic recovery and that poses a significant challenge for governments, every organization in the financial sector, consumers, and beyond; and that is cyber resilience.

For full article, please go to http://www.mondovisione.com/media-and-resources/news/remarks-of-

deputy-us-treasury-secretary-sarah-bloom-raskin-at-the-2015-city-week/



http://www.mondovisione.com/media-and-resources/news/remarks-of-deputy-us-treasury-secretary-sarah-bloom-raskin-at-the-2015-city-week/

http://www.mondovisione.com/media-and-resources/news/remarks-of-deputy-us-treasury-secretary-sarah-bloom-raskin-at-the-2015-city-week/

city week 2015 press coverage report 19 - 31 march …€¦ · press coverage 19 - 31 march 2015 4...

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