Articles by Central Banking staff
Central banks take less than 50 minutes to fix critical outages
Time tolerances for critical system downtime range from one to 32 hours
Average IT salaries are highest in Europe
Pay varies by income of institutions’ host economies
Payment innovation is top fintech research priority for central banks
CBDC ranked second as central banks explore wider implications of fintech for payments
High income economy central banks’ technology costs vary widely
Some central banks in advanced economies have kept costs as low as those in poorer nations
Large economy central banks more likely to employ CTO
Slight majority of central banks employ CTO, but differences are clearer when sorted by GDP
Most central banks do not have dedicated fintech departments
Fintech operations tend to be spread across departments
Central banks hired more fintech staff in 2020
Significant proportion of central banks are yet to establish dedicated fintech teams
Most central banks hold annual cyber security training sessions
One-third of central banks hold training every 0–6 months
Cyber security and retaining top talent are biggest tech challenges
Keeping abreast of fintech developments also tests institutions
Central banks use varied cyber defence playbook
Cyber security training for central bank staff occurs at least once a year
Nine in 10 central banks are working on CBDCs
Very few central banks have progressed past the research phase, but those that do are working on general purpose variants
Payment innovation is top fintech spending priority
One-third of central banks say they are prioritising digital currencies
Specialised lending initiative: Clearstream
Clearstream supports eurozone central bank asset purchase programmes by returning liquidity to the market through securities lending while helping Asian and American central banks secure access to this market
Central bank of the year: The Federal Reserve System
Overwhelming Fed interventions in March 2020 forestalled a damaging global financial crisis, as policy overhaul prompts introspection in Europe and Japan
Risk manager: National Bank of Georgia
Liquidity stress tests provided confidence to ease daily thresholds, and offer exchange rate, internal market and financial system support, without forcing the liquidation of illiquid reserves
Treasury systems initiative: Refinitiv
The firm’s data-driven approach is helping central banks stay ahead of fast-moving markets
Initiative of the year: Saudi Central Bank’s business continuity programme
Advanced planning has allowed Sama employees and systems to continue operating critical functions despite the Covid-19 lockdowns
Risk management technology: Ion Treasury
The US firm has championed Libor transition services, and supported reserve managers manage positions during the coronavirus shock
Economics in central banking: ‘Patterns in invoicing currency in global trade’, Emine Boz, Camila Casas, Georgios Georgiadis, Gita Gopinath, Helena Le Mezo, Arnaud Mehl and Tra Nguyen
An extensive data-gathering exercise allowed the authors to shed new light on critical aspects of policy-making in a globalised world, while clearing a path for other researchers to follow
High income countries report greater numbers of licensed fintech firms
Some jurisdictions host many licensed fintech firms but others have none
Central banks struggle to retain fintech talent
Private sector competition lures employees away