Central Banking Journal
Currency initiative: The ECB and US Federal Reserve’s CDI2 standards
The issuers of the world’s two most international currencies have created an important new technical standard to support more efficient cash management
Currency services initiative: CCL Secure
The banknote substrate provider is making a concerted effort to reduce its environmental impact by optimising production processes and building a recycling plant in Mexico
Currency manager: National Bank of Ukraine
Ukraine’s decisive actions to cut currency denominations while upgrading banknotes and coins are starting to pay off
Payments and market infrastructure development – retail: Central Bank of Hungary
The Hungarian central bank’s strict implementation requirements and unique operational setup has supported the acceleration towards electronic payments during the pandemic
Lifetime achievement: Charles Goodhart
The LSE and BoE veteran economist has his own ‘law’, and played a key role in the establishment of monetary policy in the UK, Hong Kong’s peg and the ‘New Zealand model’, which influenced a generation of central bankers
Website: Central Bank of the Philippines
BSP says its website’s mobile-friendly design and chatbot has boosted effectiveness of communication
Transparency: National Bank of Georgia
Georgia’s central bank has improved communications on monetary policy, financial stability and consumer protection
Advisory services: Oliver Wyman
The consultancy has built a reputation for analytical excellence and governance expertise, and counts leading central banks across the globe as its clients
Collateral management services: Calypso Technology
The US-headquartered tech company has helped to develop the “new backbone” of the Swiss financial market, offering flexibility, standardisation and automation to the Swiss collateral management process
Communications initiative: Bank of Portugal
The launch of two mobile apps marked the final steps to redesign digital communication channels with both the public and own employees
Global markets award: BNP Paribas
The bank shone across a wide range of business areas and regions during the turbulence of Covid-19
Green initiative: Bank of England
UK central bank breaks path for others by disclosing climate-related risk across all operations
Reserve manager of the year: Bank Indonesia
The Asian central bank stabilised the rupiah’s fall during the Covid-19 pandemic in large part due to its new macro-factor strategic asset allocation framework
Governor of the year: Alejandro Díaz de León
Díaz de León has upheld the authority, integrity and independence of the Bank of Mexico against significant external and internal pressures
Innovation in reserve management: World Bank Treasury/ANZ Bank
The pair developed a Swift-based messaging app to manage faster and safer cash operations for central bank members of Ramp at the height of the pandemic
Asset manager: BNP Paribas Asset Management
The European asset manager has leveraged its focus on official institutions, expertise in MBS, training, reporting and ESG compliance to grow its business with central banks
Climate portfolio services: RepRisk
The Swiss company’s machine learning tool checks reports on 160,000 companies daily from a host of sources in 20 languages to offer central banks and SWFs early warnings on climate-related risks
Climate initiative: HSBC
The UK bank is working closely with central banks and other official institutions to support the transition towards a greener global system
Big data in central banks 2020–21 report: shifting to centre stage
The Covid-19 shock made big data a key input into policy at a time when data governance appears to be improving and central banks are embracing cloud technology
Data-driven policy-making for central banks focus report 2021
In this report, Central Banking discusses why data is so crucial for central banks to make effective policy decisions and why current traditional indicators that are no longer fit for purpose. The pandemic has highlighted the need for an overhaul of data…
The untapped potential of transaction data
Covid-19 has highlighted the need for central banks to have more timely information, questioning whether high-frequency indicators are being used to their full potential.
Mário Centeno on monetary-fiscal interaction in the eurozone
Bank of Portugal governor says ECB is not being overrun by former finance ministers, must improve the definition of its inflation target and has no need for yield curve control. Centeno believes NextGenerationEU fund could serve as template for a future…
Book notes: Capital and ideology, by Thomas Piketty
A political pamphlet like Milton’s ‘Areopagitica’, but longer