Commentary
Problem of recruiting and retaining fintech talent persists
Salaries a key issue alongside skill set attainment
Cyber security rises as fintech research priority
Suptech overtakes regtech
Sandbox popularity rises at central banks
Trend looks set to continue
Machine learning and NLP top regtech tools
Micro-prudential reporting and risk assessment are main regtech applications
Efficient data reporting is main suptech driver
Resource constraints are the biggest challenge in developing a suptech strategy
Majority of central banks lack legal authority to issue CBDC
Technical CBDC design has legal implications
Payments efficiency is driving force behind many CBDCs
Inclusion, financial stability and monetary policy are also leading factors
Two-thirds of central banks have a centralised risk unit
Central banks with a centralised risk unit tend to use KRIs
Risk management salaries tend to increase with team size
Median salary among respondents was $30,000
Responsibilities and risk management changed at 43% of central banks
Responsibilities modified over last two years required parallel developments in risk management
Minority of central banks define project risk appetite
Institutional risk and delegated risk appetites defined more often
Financial risk most staffed function
Risk management team sizes vary considerably between central banks
Over half of central banks have a chief risk officer
Most have a risk management committee
Minority of central banks use GRC platforms
RSA Archer and SAP named as providers
ISO 31000, COSO-ERM are influential risk management approaches
IOWRG, Basel and NIST also used by central banks
Over half of central banks modified collateral policies during the pandemic
Most reduced haircuts on banks’ collateral
Few central banks cover environmental risk
Central banks list environmental risk as a minor source of risk
Cyber security risks rose most in the past year
Operational and market risks also increased
Reputational risk tops central bank concerns
Cyber security and credit/counterparty risk followed
Larger research teams tend to publish more
Central banks with bigger teams report greater publishing volumes, but variation remains
Advanced economies draw on wider range of models
DSGE models and newer techniques more common at advanced economy central banks
Quarterly forecast updates predominate
Frequency of forecasts varies more widely in emerging markets
Data services centralised at minority of central banks
Central data governance and technology services used by three in 10 central banks
Alternative data fuels central bank research
Important research areas include monetary transmission, exchange rates, digitisation, SMEs and climate change, against the backdrop of Covid