Articles by Central Banking staff
Fintech Benchmarks 2023 – executive summary
Most central banks continue work on CBDC, while payments innovation again tops research agenda
EME fintech teams have wider mandates
Few chief fintech officers recruited by central banks
Regulating fintech is biggest tech challenge, central banks say
Benefits include financial inclusion, cost reduction and service efficiency
Central banks split on machine learning, AI technologies
Respondents optimise features despite drags in data quality, skills gap and algorithmic challenges
Location, security and privacy are top cloud concerns
Richer economies more likely to domesticate and operate hybrid servers
Cloud used for business continuity and advancing computation
Most institutions rely on third parties for services
Retail CBDC work more common than wholesale
Most jurisdictions still lack a legal mandate to issue a CBDC
Central banks are bullish on environmental features of CBDC
A minority of respondents’ jurisdictions prohibit crypto assets
Economics Benchmarks 2022 – presentation
Economics specialist Daniel Hinge discusses year-on-year trends, forecasting choices and research
Improving payments efficiency drives wholesale CBDC work
Advanced economy institutions lead efforts
Richer nations more likely to have regtech strategy
Regtech tools commonly used for risk assessment
Innovation hubs more common in advanced economies
Sandboxes remain most popular fintech initiative
Two in five central banks report having a suptech strategy
Enhancing efficiency is a key driver
EME central banks more likely to license fintech firms
Most institutions choose activity-based approach over other licensing methods
Payment innovation is top priority for fintech research
CBDCs and suptech are also leading focus areas for development
Half of central bank respondents have a fintech strategy
Most strategies cover the external payments ecosystem and internal fintech development
Treasuries’ negative swap spread may cause ‘significant pressure’
New York Fed article says tighter monetary policy could exacerbate Treasury market “fragility”
Risk Management Benchmarks 2023 – executive summary
Key results from the 2023 benchmarks, including risk priorities, organisational structure and metrics
Over four-fifths of banks have yet to update APP risk mitigants
Most emerging market institutions plan to improve climate provisions in near future
Financial risk teams have higher staffing ratio than other units
Cyber risk and other threats prompt greater staff allocation to sub-units
Federal Reserve fines bank over AML breaches on Covid-19 loans
Popular Bank allegedly processed six coronavirus-era loans with significant signs of fraud
Financial risks report published across 75% of jurisdictions
Frequency of publications and levels of transparency vary across jurisdictions
Centralised departments more likely to face new responsibilities
Respondents reported changes in risk approaches to the environment, and banking and insurance supervision