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Payables News Weekly: Quantitative Easing in Europe and the Federal Reserve Loves Bitcoin

Andrew Bartolini January 27, 2015 News No Comments

We’re trying a bit of a different format with Payables News Weekly this time around. From here on out, we’ll lead with a handful of stories big enough to warrant capsules explaining the news event and then follow those with a bulleted list of other news events from around the accounts payable world.

For this installment, we’ve got the European Central Bank launching quantitative easing, and a vice president in the Federal Reserve System lauding Bitcoin as possibly transformative for the central bank. Read on to find out more.

BBC News: ECB Unveils Massive QE Boost for Eurozone

The BBC reported on January 21 that the European Central Bank will purchase €60 billion per month of bonds from European banks, until the end of September 2016 at the earliest. The program is set to begin in March, and ECB President Mario Draghi said only 20% of the asset purchases will force central banks to take risks outside their national borders. This is the first time quantitative easing has been rolled out in the Eurozone. Read the full article at http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30933515.

Cryptocoins News: Official Says Federal Reserve Could Benefit From the Bitcoin Blockchain

The vice president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank came out in favor of Bitcoin, according to Cryptocoins News. David Andolfatto, of the St. Louis Fed, praised the open source, transparent, and decentralized blockchain that tracks Bitcoin transactions, saying that the Federal Reserve could stand to be more accountable to the public. Read the full article at https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/official-says-federal-reserve-benefit-bitcoin-blockchain/.

CoinDesk: BBA, Payments Council Respond to UK ‘Call for Information’ on Digital Currencies

The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) and the UK Payments Council issued their response to the UK government’s call for information on digital currencies, CoinDesk reports. The BBA and Payments Council response considered both the benefits and risks of digital currencies such as Bitcoin, and was in response to a government call for information that expired on December 3. The BBA/Payments Council document praised digital currencies for the possibility of financial inclusion, but also engaged in a little bit of hand-wringing over the risks of anonymity and crime associated with digital currency. Read the full article at http://www.coindesk.com/bba-payments-council-respond-uk-call-information-digital-currencies.

In Other News…

American Express (NYSE: AXP) announced its fourth quarter earnings last week. Net income rose 11% quarter-over-quarter, with income from Global Commercial Services shooting to $594 million from $182 million a year ago—partly because American Express sold its stake in Concur Technologies.
Denmark’s central bank cut its main interest rate twice last week, Business Insider reports. The new interest rate is -0.35% as of Thursday, which came on the heels of last Monday’s cut to -0.2%. Denmark is attempting to maintain its currency peg against the euro, which gets harder and harder each day.
PRGX Global, Inc. (Nasdaq:PRGX) announced a new VP of its adjacent services Jeffrey K. Anderson joins the company from Revenue Analytics, Inc.
Global Finance magazine ranked Ariba, an SAP (NYSE:SAP) company, as one of the world’s best supply chain finance providers for the fourth year in a row.
Basware announced its fourth-quarter earnings on Friday, January 23. Profit rose 13.6% year-over-year, from €2.6 million at year-end 2013 to €2.95 million at year-end 2014. Full-year EPS rose 11.4%, from 0.20 per share in 2013 to 0.22 per share in 2014.