detailed compilation methods and seasonal adjustment. This reflects two facts. Firstly, that the processes associated with buying and selling a property and hence data available, vary between countries and secondly, that there are currently no specific international standards for property price statistics. However, Eurostat is taking the lead in drafting a Handbook on Residential Property Price Indices under the aegis of the Inter-Secretariat Working Group on Price Statistics. This handbook will give recommendations on best practice for compiling residential property price indices and will present these in the context of the different user needs for such indices. A draft of the Handbook is available for public comment. The Handbook builds on work undertaken at a number of international meetings over recent years to identify the requirements for improved data on property prices from an economic, monetary and financial stability perspective.
In disseminating these statistics, the BIS and its member central banks are following up on Recommendation 19 in the Report on "The Financial Crisis and Information Gaps" submitted by the Financial Stability Board and IMF to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors
On 24-25 June 2010, the BIS held its Ninth Annual Conference, on "The future of central banking under post-crisis mandates" in Lucerne, Switzerland. The event brought together senior representatives of central banks and academic institutions who exchanged views on this topic. This volume contains the opening address by Stephen Cecchetti (Economic Adviser, BIS), a keynote address by Baron Alexandre Lamfalussy, and the contributions of the policy panel on "Do central bank governance arrangements need to be altered?". The participants in the policy panel discussion, chaired by Jaime Caruana (General Manager, BIS), were Mark Carney (Bank of Canada), Andrew Crockett (JPMorgan Chase International), Stefan Ingves (Sveriges Riksbank), Lucas Papademos (former Vice-President, ECB) and Duvvuri Subbarao (Reserve Bank of India). The papers presented at the conference and the discussants' comments were released as BIS Working Papers 326 to 331.
The Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), meeting in Basel, Switzerland, yesterday elected Masaaki Shirakawa, Governor of the Bank of Japan, as its Vice-Chairman.
Mr Shirakawa has been on the Board since May 2008 and is Chair of the BIS Asian Consultative Council. His appointment as Vice-Chairman is for a period of three years from 10 January 2011.
Mr Shirakawa succeeds Hans Tietmeyer who had held the post from 1 July 2003 until he stepped down as a BIS director at end-December 2010. The BIS Board expressed their gratitude to Mr Tietmeyer for his eminent services to the BIS.
The Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) announces the appointment of José De Gregorio as Chair of the BIS Consultative Council for the Americas (CCA). Mr De Gregorio is Governor of the Central Bank of Chile.
Mr De Gregorio's appointment is for a term of two years from 10 January 2011. He succeeds Henrique de Campos Meirelles, Governor of the Central Bank of Brazil until end-December 2010, as CCA Chair. The BIS Board and CCA Governors thank Mr Meirelles for his leadership during his time as Chair.
The CCA comprises the Governors of the BIS member central banks in the Americas region 1 . It was established in May 2008 to facilitate communication between the members of the BIS in the Americas and the Bank's Board and Management on matters of interest and concern to the central bank community in the region. The BIS Representative Office for the Americas provides the Secretariat for the CCA.
Recurrent capital inflows pose important challenges for authorities in emerging market economies seeking to preserve financial stability. Raising interest rates to dampen imbalances that could arise from capital flows can also attract more capital inflows and accentuate appreciation pressures. For this reason authorities have used a number of instruments to mitigate the effects of capital flows, all with financial stability implications. Many of these instruments (eg reserve requirements) may have been used for other purposes but the global financial crisis has raised interest in examining them from a financial stability, or "macroprudential" perspective. This paper reviews some of these instruments, drawing in part on material provided by central banks to the BIS. The instruments include foreign exchange market intervention and foreign reserve accumulation; measures to strengthen bank balance sheets and capital and measures to maintain the quality of credit or to ifnluence credit growth or allocation, and capital controls. Certain implementation issues are also discussed, including signals to respond to, timing of prudential measures and procyclicality and effectiveness and calibration. An unresolved question is how the instruments described are to be used in conjunction with interest rate policy. Over the medium term, these instruments raise concerns because they may impair the development of the financial system. During the 1930s, rating agencies took up a central role in regulatory supervision that they still have today. The proximate cause for this changeover was the economic shock of the Great Depression. Exploring the performance of rating agencies in assessing the risks of sovereign debt, an important segment of the bond market, we do not find that superior forecasting capacities can explain the agencies' growing importance.
• During the 1930s, rating agencies took up a central role in regulatory supervision that they still have today. The proximate cause for this changeover was the economic shock of the Great Depression. Exploring the performance of rating agencies in assessing the risks of sovereign debt, an important segment of the bond market, we do not find that superior forecasting capacities can explain the agencies' growing importance.
• Publications & research
The Macroeconomic Assessment Group (MAG) was established in February 2010 by the chairs of the Financial Stability Board and Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to coordinate an assessment of the macroeconomic implications of the Basel Committee's proposed reforms. The membership of the MAG comprises macroeconomic modelling experts from central banks and regulators in 15 countries and a number of international institutions. Stephen Cecchetti, Economic Adviser of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), was asked to chair the Group.
This paper asks why Asia-Pacific residents issue debt in offshore markets and considers the implications for domestic debt markets. We use unit record data for bond issuance by non-government residents of Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Singapore to link the decision to issue offshore to potential benefits. The results suggest that residents of smaller markets issue bonds offshore to arbitrage price differentials; to access foreign investors; and to issue larger, lower-rated or longer-maturity bonds. These bond characteristics tend to be correlated with offshore bond market size. The results support the notions that (i) deviations from covered interest parity are actively arbitraged by residents of minor currency areas, as well as by internationally active borrowers, as established in the literature; and (ii) issuers benefit from the liquidity and diversification of larger "complete" offshore markets. Against the potential benefits to borrowers, we consider the risks for both borrowers and the domestic market, and lessons from the ongoing financial crisis such as the benefits of funding diversification.