Commentary
Securities lending banks engage external managers for new assets
Allocation to third parties rises year on year to 15.6% on average
Investment remains largest tranche of most FX reserves
Asset-screening central banks more likely to operate other tranches
Smaller reserve holders rarely lend securities or conduct stress tests
CVAR remains widely used risk management technique
Reserve managers typically do not employ negative screening
Central banks with short-term import coverage more likely to utilise tool
Many managers assess reserves with benchmarks and other approaches
Central bank board remains top body granting approval for reserve benchmarking
European central banks shift reserves from US Treasuries to euro assets
US Treasuries still make up largest share of respondents’ reserves globally
Two in five large reserves holders reduce dollar allocations
Yet central banks’ FX holdings remain broadly denominated in US currency
Reserve managers widely satisfied with staff strength and resources
Large reserve management teams tend to earn higher salaries
Neutral counter-cyclical capital buffer averages less than 1%
But average neutral level of CCyB varies by economic groupings
Six central banks report increase in AML/CFT risks
Nine in 10 institutions indicate having sufficient powers to deal with risks
Central banks see cyber attacks as key financial stability risk
Respondents also reveal other elevated risks, including geopolitics and tariffs
Cyber attacks rise in three-fifths of jurisdictions
Central banks lacking incident response team report highest rate of attacks
Majority of central banks have analysed effects of tariffs
Spike in levies seen as having varying degrees of impact on financial stability
Only 30% of central banks conduct non-bank stress-testing
Exercise tends to be less common in institutions with smaller financial stability teams
Most central banks seek improved regulatory frameworks
Key areas include laws on systemically important banks, liquidity risks, insurance and fintechs
Limit on insured bank deposit payouts averages $50,000
One in 10 jurisdictions lack any deposit insurance fund
Two in five central banks see need for more macro-pru tools
Caps on loan-to-value ratios are respondents’ most actively used policy
AI most widely used for document preparation in financial stability
Smaller financial stability teams less likely to utilise technology
Only 5% of central banks reveal individual bank stress-test results
Respondents share details of how stress scenarios are developed
Central banks with resource deficiency tend to pay higher salaries
Average financial stability budget also higher in units with that report non-staff resource shortage
Financial stability staff sufficiency improves year on year
Most central banks report contentment with non-staff resources
Most central banks co-ordinate monetary and financial stability tools
Cross-scenario evaluation and committee overlap cited as areas of interaction
Supervisors widely use suptech tools for data collection and validation
AI use is growing but remains much less widespread than suptech
Resolution framework update planned by 56% of supervisors
Non-central bank supervisory authorities less likely to have bail-in powers