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The Institutional Framework of the GCC Central Bank

Individual assignment: Your need to write around 3000 words reports about how should be the structure of the suggested Central Bank for GCC? How might this bank be similar or different from the European Central Bank? What are the arguments for and against the GCC central bank? What are the most important objectives and functions for GCC central Bank?
The report should be written in an academic style (executive summary, Introduction, discussion, conclusion, and references list).

Marking guidelines Project Report: The assignment will be allocated 8 marks depending on the content, academic referencing and well structure and writing. Word count: 3000 words (not including references).

Structure and Contents of Project report: The Project Report is an outline of your 5 points Project, providing information on the “What, Why, How conceptually and How practically” of your research. The purpose is to show the reader you have managed to arrange your broad Project research ideas into a logical account of research; and your work is justifiable and meaningful. It requires you to think clearly about your research objectives, research methods and relevant literature.

The following information needs to be included in your Project Report:

a. Title of your Project Report and executive summary: Indicating the focus of your work

b. Introduction-Background: This section should explain the rationale and the context for your topic. You should provide sufficient background information on the issues you want to discuss for the reader to be able to understand the rest of your report as well as its value. If you focus on an organization you should provide enough organizational information to put your research into context.

c. Discussion: This may be presented under more than one heading. This include a detailed critical analysis of the literature provides an identification of themes from academic and other relevant recent and/or historically important literature which acts as the basis for your study and clarifies where your study fits into this debate. Then you turn to discuss the different parts of the question giving your own opinion.

d. Conclusion: This part should summarize your work giving brief information about:

• The brief answer for question

• The most important results and its relation with the literature.

• Your contribution what should we learn from you work.
you could use this information and also more references if you like thanks.

Central Banks: A Global Perspective
Origins of the Federal Reserve System
 The Fed was created in 1913, with the aim of mitigating the public panic due to widespread bank failures that cause major loses to depositors at that time.
Structure of the Federal Reserve System
 The Fed System include 12 Fed banks, the Board of Governors, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), The Federal Advisory Council and about 2,900 member commercial banks.
Federal Reserve Banks
 Each of the 12 Federal districts has one Federal Reserve Bank.
 The 3 largest banks in terms of assets are those of New York, Chicago and San Francisco – hold more than 50% of the assets
(discount loans, securities and others) of the Fed.
 Each of the Fed banks is a quasi-public institution owned by
government and the private commercial banks in the district.
 The private banks that are members of the Fed have purchased stock in their district bank. The member banks elect 6 directors for each district bank; 3 more appointed by the Board of Governors.
Together, these 9 appoint the president of the bank. 1
 The 12 Fed banks perform the following functions:
1. Clear checks,
2. Issue new and withdraw damaged currency from circulation,
3. Administer discount loans,
4. Evaluate proposed mergers for banks,
5. Act as liaisons between business community and the Fed,
6. Examine bank holding companies and state-chartered banks,
7. Collect data on local business activities and
8. Use their staff to research topics related to the monetary
policy.
 The 12 Fed banks are involved in monetary policy as:
1. The directors establish the discount rate (though it is determined by the Board of Governors).
2. The decided which banks can obtain discount loans
3. The directors select one commercial bank to serve on the
Federal Advisory Council that conduct of monetary policy.
4. Five of the12 bank presidents vote on the Federal Open
Market Committee, which directs open market operations.
Commercial Banks
 All national banks (commercial banks charted) are members of the Fed System. 38% of the commercial banks are members of the Fed.
Board of Governors of the Fed
 At the head of the Federal Reserve System is the 7 member Board of Governors in Washington. Each governor is appointed by the president of the US.
 The governors are required to come from different Federal districts to prevent any region from being overrepresented.
 The Board of Governors is involved in conduct of monetary policy. The Board also sets reserve requirements and controls the discount rate which established by the Federal Reserve banks.
 The Board has regulatory functions: It approves bank mergers and applications for new activities, specifies permissible activities of bank holding companies and supervises foreign banks.
Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)
 The FOMC (referred to as Fed) makes decisions regarding the conduct of open market operations, the most important policy tool for controlling the money supply and interest rates.
 Although reserve requirements and the discount rate are not set by the FOMC, decisions regarding policy tools are made there.
 The FOMC does not actually carry out securities purchases or 3
sales. Instead, it directs the trading desk at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where the manager for domestic open market operations supervises people who execute the purchases and sales of the government securities.
How Independent is the Fed?
 Stanley Fischer, a professor at MIT has defined 2 different types of independence of central banks: instrument independence (ability to set policy instruments), and goal independence (ability to set goals of monetary policy).
 The Fed has both types of independence and free of the political pressure that influence other government agencies.
 A factor that enhances its independence is its ability to generate revenues from holdings of securities and loans to banks.
 However, the Congress has passed legislation in 1978 requiring the Fed to explain how the conduct of monetary policy is consistent with the objectives given by the Federal Reserve Act.
Structure of the European Central Bank (ECB)
 The ECB and European System of Central Banks (ESCB) have been established by Maastricht Treaty in 1999, with the aim of conducting monetary policy for members of the European Monetary Union.
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 The decisions in the Eurosystem are taken by the ECB, but implemented via the National Central Banks (NCBs).
 The ESCB encompasses the ECB and the National Central Banks of the 27 EU member states whether or not they use the euro as their domestic currency.
 The Eurosystem, on the other hand, comprises of the ECB and the NCBs of only the 16 countries that have adopted the euro.
 Euro is referred to the countries using the euro as their currency. The decision process at the EMU takes place at 3 levels: the Governing Council (the decision maker), the Executive Board (responsible for the execution of decisions of the Governing Council) and the General Council (advisory body).
Governing Council Executive Board and General Council
 The main responsibility of the Governing Council is to formulate the monetary policy for the Euro area, authorization of the NCBs to issue currency notes, changes in interest rates and supervising the proper management of foreign reserves.
 It also responsible for giving guidelines to NCBs for the implementation of those decisions.
 The Governing Council convenes regularly at the Eurotower in Frankfurt. It assesses the economic and monetary conditions and
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developments in the EMU.
 The General Council will be dissolved once all EU member states
introduce the single currency. It performs advisory tasks to the ECB, collects statistical information and standardizes the accounting operations of the NCBs.
National Central Banks within the Eurosystem
 The NCBs in the ESCB exercise powers delegated to them by the Governing Council.
 For instance, the largest national central bank is the Bundesbank (Buba) that act as the central bank of Germany. It main tasks are conducting monetary policy and manages the foreign exchange system of the country.
 After introduction of euro as its currency in 2001, the Bundesbank exists as part of the European Central Bank.
 Its objectives agree with those of the ECB, with the primary goal of price stability.
 The Governing Council of the ECB has the prime goal of targeting the annual rate of inflation in the Euro zone at about 2%.
 The Bundesbank has five core tasks that is jointly performed with the ECB.
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1. To implement the Eurosystem monetary policy as laid down
in the EC Treaty – ensure stable prices. The Bundesbank does not have the right to issue currency notes but only after authorization from the ECB.
2. It performs the function of clearing house for its member banks. All central banks within the Euro zone are members of a payment system (known as TARGET 2).
The ECB does not supervise banks, but this task is delegated to national banks which are responsible for supervising the solvency, liquidity and risk of financial institutions. They also ensure that banks hold adequate capital requirements according to Basel Accord II.
3. is the state’s banker and the Federal Government’s fiscal policy agent and advises on issues of monetary policy.
4. It also manages the currency reserves; the ECB has no say as to how much foreign reserves but each NCB is required to contribute to the ECB foreign reserves equivalent to its contribution to the capital of the ECB.
5. Cooperate with other international institutions to maintain a stable financial system.
Bank of England (BOE)
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 Founded in 1694, BOE is one of the oldest central banks. It was the least independent of the central banks as the decision to raise or lower interest rates resided with the Chancellor of Exchequer (Minister of Finance) till 1997.
 Since 1997, the BOE has 2 prime functions: the national debt management and the supervision of the bank sector.
 The inflation target for the BOE is set by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Bank of Japan
 Nippon Ginko of Japan was founded in 1882. Monetary policy is determined by the Policy Board. Until recently, the bank was not formally independent given the ultimate power residing with the Ministry of Finance.
 However, in 1998, major change in power has taken place. The monetary policy attained the goal of price stability. In addition, the Ministry of Finance lost authority to oversee bank of Japan.
People’s Bank of China (PBC)
 The PBC established in 1948 to act as sole mono-bank, undertaking both commercial banking and central banking roles, since in most socialist regimes private banks were prohibited.
 In 1980, the commercial activities in china are divided into 4-state 8

owned bank.
 In 1985, the PBC legally started its functions as a full-fledged
central bank. Since that time, gradual reforms have been introduced to grant PBC control over the banking sector and the authority to implement monetary policy.
 A problem facing the Chinese banking system is the large portfolio of bad debts, which amounted to $700 billion in 2007. This has compelled the PBC to bail out a number of state-owned banks.
The Monetary Union of the 6 Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
 The GCC is a trade bloc comprising 6 Arab nations, was established in 1981 but the GCC common market was founded in 2008.
 The GCC removes all trade barriers between the member nations and grants national treatment to GCC businesses and citizens.
 GCC national GDP grew from $823 billion in 2007 to $1223 billion in 2008. The heads of 5 central banks decided in 2008 to create a new central bank (expected to be called the Gulf Central Bank (GCB)).
 The primary goal of the GCB would be to establish the currency union. The new common GCC currency is supposed to be named
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“khaliji” or “the gulf” and would be pegged to a basket of
currencies.
 The goal of the common currency is to facilitate trade, to price oil
in the new khaliji currency. This enables better control of the
prices of oil.
 However, due to withdrawal of both Oman and UAE due to
locating GCB in Saudi Arabia, efforts are slowed.
Explaining Central Bank Behavior
 The “public interest view” is that bureaucracies serve the public interest and this is why government limits the discretion granted to central banks.
 However, some economics suggest that this theory describe that the objective of a bureaucracy is to maximize its own welfare – power and prestige.
 However, while central banks are concerned that they conduct monetary policy in the public interest, much uncertainty exist over what monetary policy should be.
 As for central bank independency, the argument is that central banks are subject to political pressures that would impart bias in conducting monetary policy.
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 Many economists argue that politicians may be shortsighted because they are driven by the need to win their next election. Thus, they are unlikely to focus on long-run objectives, such as promoting a stable price level.
 A variation on the preceding argument is that the political process in democratic societies could lead to a political business cycle, in which just before an election, expansionary polies are pursued to lower unemployment and interest rates.
 Afterelection,theeffectofthesepolicies–highinflationandhigh interest rates – cause problems requiring contractionary policies that politicians hope the public will forget before next election.
 Proponents of setting bank under the control argue that it is undemocratic to have monetary policy controlled by an elite group that is responsible to no one.
 In addition, to achieve a cohesive program that promotes economic stability, monetary policy must be coordinated with fiscal policy.