Commentary
Op risk incidents average over 100 a year among central banks
Financial impact is risk managers’ strongest metric for gauging incidents’ severity
Phishing and ransomware are central banks’ main cyber threats
Teams widely use training, monitoring and privilege management to mitigate cyber threats
Just under half of risk departments are sufficiently staffed
Units with satisfied staffing levels earn below global average annual salary
Mitigation and reporting are leading components of risk strategy
Decentralised teams more likely to embed philosophy in divisional decision-making
Most centralised risk teams prioritise cyber security
Decentralised teams primarily cover credit and counterparty, op and market risks
Risk policies widely reviewed by committee in larger teams
Central banks with larger teams favour risk committees over CROs
Middle income central banks have highest number of risk staff
But ratios of risk management employees to total headcount vary widely
Central banks’ social media share ticks up
Social-traditional media split for communications roughly the same across different regions
Local languages widely used in central bank communications
African central banks use more English in communications than counterparts in other regions
Journalists and politicians are main critics of central banks
Benchmark respondents comment on their efforts to engage constructively with stakeholders
Comms teams see dis/misinformation on social media as key risk
Criticism from government ranks as smallest risk
Website upgrades are comms teams’ top priorities for next year
Commitments differ somewhat by departmental structure
Larger comms teams involved earlier in policy decisions
Most departments become involved in duty after decisions are taken
Hybrid teams widely employ social media for two-way communications
Most respondents use strategies to address crises and disinformation
Communications teams use AI mainly for drafting
But use cases vary according to team structures
LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube are top comms platforms
Over a third of communication teams adopted new platforms in the past year
Central banks universally communicate internally via email
Additional tools used vary somewhat by system efficiency and structure
Social media and press releases are primary external comms channels
Impact assessment tools vary across teams by structural approach
Three in four comms teams report non-staff resource adequacy
Senior staff make up roughly half of departments across jurisdictions
Centralised comms unit staff earn lesser salary than peers
FTE employees average roughly 20 personnel across central banks
Hybrid comms teams prioritise website over other activities
Communications department budget averages just over $1 million yearly
Changing balance sheet composition mostly reflects normalisation
Gold buying and FX interventions drive changes in some jurisdictions
Inflation targeters mainly use corridor systems to set interest rates
But many central banks with exchange rate controls also use corridor systems
Policy impact widely gauged by macro and market indicators
Policy-making frameworks commonly reviewed on ad hoc basis