LONDON (Reuters) – Markets have recovered their poise after bouts of extreme volatility in March caused by the coronavirus pandemic that left “hard questions” for policymakers to answer, a senior Bank of England official said on Thursday.
“Financial markets could come under strain again if there is another leg to the global infection cycle, or if economic data come out persistently worse than expected,” Andrew Hauser, the BoE’s executive director for markets, told a Bloomberg webinar.
Hauser said policymakers need to look at how markets can amplify the “dash for cash” seen in March and April.
“First, do we understand why intermediaries struggled to make effective markets in core government bond, money and foreign exchange instruments at crucial moments during the crisis?” Hauser said.
Policymakers should also ask themselves if they are comfortable with the core role played by heavily indebted but thinly capitalised non-banks in markets.
“Third, how do we deal with the risks posed to financial stability by the structural tendency for money market and some other open-ended funds to be prone to runs,” Hauser said.
“How can we ensure timely transition away from Libor, whose weaknesses were highlighted so starkly by the crisis?”
(Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by Gareth Jones, Larry King)
