Should central banks embrace cryptocurrencies, or even pioneer their own? In a nutshell, no. Crypto assets are an unusual innovation, still in flux and often poorly understood. Trying to centralize them in a bureaucracy is exactly the wrong way to go. Yet China’s central bank claims it is working towards a blockchain-based digital currency. Singapore has already experimented in this …

Bloomberg The European Central Bank is sticking to the substance of its plan to toughen bad-loan rules for euro-area banks even as it makes some adjustments in response to a barrage of criticism from Rome and Brussels, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The ECB was accused of overreach in its recent proposal to hold banks to firm …

Bloomberg A group of former Credit Suisse Group AG staff, led by Australian investment banker John Wylie, has started an Asia-Pacific credit investment fund to take advantage of banks reining in lending. Tanarra Credit Partners has raised more than A$285 million ($216 million) for its Asia-Pacific Fund I, which will invest in senior and mezzanine debt, and is targeting as …