"Repo" is short for "sale and repurchase agreement", where one party agrees to sell bonds or other financial instruments to another party, with an agreement to repurchase equivalent securities in the future, under a formal legal agreement. It is widely used in financial markets as an alternative...

Derivatives, ranging from relatively simple forward contracts to complicated options products, are an increasingly important feature of financial markets worldwide. They are already being used in many emerging markets, and as the financial sector becomes deeper and more stable, their use is...

A number of governments state explicitly, in broad terms, their goals for debt management. For most, these could be summarised as: "Raising finance from the non-government sector in order to cover the government’s borrowing needs, while minimising the long-run cost of debt service and taking...

Monetary operations typically aim to achieve monetary stability; but, under this broad umbrella, the monetary authorities need to decide which specific targets to aim at, and which policy instruments should be used. For most countries the final long-term monetary target of the central bank is...

Monetary operations refer to the implementation of monetary policy – ensuring that a central bank’s policy decision has the intended impact on financial markets, and on the economy more generally. For operational purposes the day-to-day tactical target is usually to achieve a particular...

Most central banks oblige depository institutions to hold minimum reserves against their liabilities, predominantly in the form of balances at the central bank. The role of these reserve requirements has evolved significantly over time. The overlay of changing purposes and practices has the...

This paper examines a range of issues relating to bond markets in the ASEAN5 (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) - physical infrastructure including trading, clearing and settlement; regulation, supervision and legal underpinnings; and derivatives markets - and finds that...

We investigate whether low loan-to-deposit (LTD) ratios and high levels of reserve balances at the central bank (or holdings of government securities) are a reflection of policy-driven factors compared to commonly cited reasons of reluctance to lend or sometimes weak investment demand in...