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IMF Country Reports-Brazil: Financial System Stability Assessment

November 30, 2018--Since the Brazil 2012 FSAP, the financial system has been stable despite the deep recession. The resiliency of the banking system was supported by high profitability, buoyed by large interest margins. While the financial system has grown since the 2012 FSAP, its structure remains largely unchanged. The system is dominated by large, vertically-integrated financial conglomerates and concentrated in liquid short-term instruments.

The public sector continues to play a dominant role in the financial sector, and its interconnectedness. Banks are broadly resilient to severe macrofinancial shocks. Current high profits and capital ratios support the resiliency of banks under a severe stress test scenario. Under the stress scenario, small capital shortfalls result; banks would nevertheless experience reduced income, including from market loss on government bonds, and high credit losses on exposures to the corporate sector which, despite recent improvement, is still vulnerable to shocks. This benign outcome deteriorates if their capital is adjusted for deferred tax assets. Moreover, some banks are exposed to concentration risk. Some actions are still needed to address bank-specific risk profiles to boost their resilience. Banks are generally well-positioned to manage short-term and medium-term liquidity pressures and interbank contagion seems limited.

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Source: IMF

Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee, November 7-8, 2018

November 29, 2018--The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Open Market Committee on Thursday released the attached minutes of the Committee meeting held on November 7-8, 2018.

The minutes for each regularly scheduled meeting of the Committee ordinarily are made available three weeks after the day of the policy decision and subsequently are published in the Board's Annual Report. The descriptions of economic and financial conditions contained in these minutes are based solely on the information that was available to the Committee at the time of the meeting.

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Source: federalreserve.gov

U.S. Weekly FundFlows Insight Report: Despite a Strong Market Rally, Fund and ETF Investors Remain Guarded During the Week

November 29, 2018--For the first week in four investors were overall net sellers of fund assets (including those of conventional funds and ETFs), withdrawing $6.3 billion for Lipper's fund-flows week ended November 28, 2018.

Fund investors were net purchasers of money market funds (+$5.0 billion) while being net redeemers of equity funds (-$8.5 billion), taxable fixed income funds (-$2.4 billion), and municipal bond funds (-$379 million).

Market Wrap-Up
In the Thanksgiving shortened fund-flows trading week investors appeared to cheer the dovish tone set by Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell during his speech at the Economic Club of New York.

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Source: Refinitiv

OSC study reveals generation gap when it comes to optimism about retirement

November 28, 2018-- A new study released today by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) found that Canadians aged 18-34 are the most likely to believe their standard of living will increase in retirement, despite being the least likely to have started saving for retirement of any age group. The study was published as part of the OSC's activities for Financial Literacy Month.

"Unexpected events, from family and health challenges to market turbulence, can have a major impact on our financial lives," said Tyler Fleming, Director of the Investor Office at the OSC. "By planning for the long-term, we can place ourselves in a better position to respond to these events."
The study covered several topics, including:

Retirement preparedness: 39 per cent of Canadians aged 18-34 believe their standard of living will improve in retirement, compared to only eight per cent of Canadians aged 55 and older. However, 34 per cent of men and 43 per cent of women aged 18-34 have not started saving for retirement.

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Source: Ontario Securities Commission (OSC)

CFTC's LabCFTC Releases Primer about Smart Contracts

November 27, 2018--The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's LabCFTC today released, "A CFTC Primer on Smart Contracts."

This primer is part of LabCFTC's effort to engage with innovators and market participants on a range of financial technology (FinTech) topics, and follows on a 2017 primer on virtual currencies and the agency's recent FinTech Forward conference.

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Source: CFTC.gov

CFTC Approves a Final Rule to Amend Uncleared Swap Margin Requirements

November 19, 2018--The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that it has approved a final rule to amend its uncleared swap margin requirements (CFTC Margin Rule) to better align with certain rules (QFC Rules) adopted by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRS), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) that impose restrictions on certain qualified financial contracts.

This final rule is consistent with rule changes recently adopted by the Prudential Regulators to the Prudential Margin Rule and addresses suggestions received as part of the CFTC's Project KISS initiative for the CFTC to harmonize its uncleared swap margin regime with that of the Prudential Regulators.

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Source: CFTC.gov

UPDATE 1-China, Japan's U.S. Treasuries holdings fall further in September

November 16, 2018--China sold most Treasuries in nearly two years in September
Japan bought Treasuries despite further drop in holdings
Foreigners continue to cut back on U.S. stock positions

China and Japan, the two biggest foreign U.S. creditors, cut their U.S. Treasury holdings further in September, as foreign appetite for Treasuries seemed to be waning due to growing government borrowing in the bond market, Treasury Department data released on Friday showed.

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Source: cnbc.com

Lipper U.S. Weekly FundFlows Insight Report: Investors Park Assets in Money Market Funds in Response to Market Volatility

November 16, 2018--Lipper's fund asset groups (including both mutual funds and ETFs) took in $13.7 billion of net new money for the fund-flows week ended Wednesday, November 14. The net inflows were driven by money market funds (+$12.4 billion) and equity funds (+$2.7 billion), while taxable fixed income funds (-$1.2 billion) and municipal bond funds (-$131 million) both saw net money leave.

Market Overview
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (-4.20%) and the S&P 500 Index (-3.99%) both suffered substantial losses during the fund-flows trading week.

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