Background – “On 22-23 May 2014 the BIS held a conference on “Challenges from changing international financial conditions”, the fifth under the auspices of the BIS Consultative Council for the Americas (CCA). It brought together researchers from the central banking community in the region and distinguished academics and was hosted by the Bank of the Republic (Colombia) in Bogotá. A Scientific Committee, led by Claudio Borio, and comprising CCA central bank heads of research, selected papers on the following topics [link to the presentations]:

Exit from unconventional monetary policies. (i) Effects of US monetary policy tightening on domestic financial markets and macroeconomic variables; (ii) Impact on capital flows and external financing; (iii) Appropriate macroeconomic and regulatory policy responses; (iv) Commodity price movements and policy implications.

Credit markets and financial regulation. (i) Credit markets over the business cycle – implications for financial stability and regulation; (ii) Factors influencing cost of credit (eg financial frictions, capital regulation) and its impact on macroeconomic aggregates; (iii) Coordination between monetary and financial policy (including issues of monetary transmission); (iv) Banking structure (eg participation of foreign, public or development banks and nonbank financial institutions) and credit markets.

The current members of the Scientific Committee are: Hyun Song Shin (BIS, Chair), Jorge Carrera (Central Bank of Argentina), Eduardo Lima (Central Bank of Brazil), Miguel Molico (Bank of Canada), Luis Oscar Herrera (Central Bank of Chile), Hernando Vargas (Bank of the Republic – Colombia), Alberto Torres (Bank of Mexico), Adrián Armas (Central Reserve Bank of Peru) and Thomas Connors (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System). Angelo Duarte (Visiting Economist at the BIS) and Ramon Moreno (Acting Chief Representative, Office for the Americas) organised the meeting.”