Bloomberg News: The Fed Wants to Test How Banks Would Handle Negative Rates
http://www.bloombergview.com/quicktake/negative-interest-rates
Negative Interest Rates
Less Than Zero
By Jana Randow and Simon Kennedy | Updated Mar 10, 2016 10:19 AM EST
Imagine a bank that pays negative interest. Depositors are actually charged to keep their money in an account. Crazy as it sounds, several of Europes central banks have cut key interest rates below zero and kept them there for more than a year. Now Japan is trying it, too. For some, its a bid to reinvigorate an economy with other options exhausted. Others want to push foreigners to move their money somewhere else. Either way, its an unorthodox choice that has distorted financial markets and triggered warnings that the strategy could backfire. If negative interest rates work, however, they may mark the start of a new era for the worlds central banks.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-02/rates-less-than-zero-is-bank-stress-fed-wants-to-test-in-2016
The Fed Wants to Test How Banks Would Handle Negative Rates
by Rich Miller
Feb 2, 2016
As interest rates turn negative around the world, the Federal Reserve is asking banks to consider the possibility of the same happening in the U.S.
In its annual stress test for 2016, the Fed said it will assess the resilience of big banks to a number of possible situations, including one where the rate on the three-month U.S. Treasury bill stays below zero for a prolonged period.
"The severely adverse scenario is characterized by a severe global recession, accompanied by a period of heightened corporate financial stress and negative yields for short-term U.S. Treasury securities," the central bank said in announcing the stress tests last week.
In that particular simulation, the unemployment rate doubles to 10 percent, the same level it reached in the aftermath of the last financial crisis.
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