Commentary
Governors at four in five central banks left before their term ended
Countries with highest governor turnover were experiencing political instability
Most central banks accountable to legislature
Chains of accountability vary and there does not appear to be one ‘gold standard’
Four in 10 central banks have legal right to be consulted on mandate changes
Most have legal restrictions on their ability to use monetary financing to fund the government
Most central banks spend less than 20% of their IT budget on security
Average spend was 16% of IT budget
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
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
Size matters for central bank research publishing
Staff numbers have strongest association with central banks’ research output
Administrative data is most popular alternative data source
Central banks make use of a wide range of non-traditional data sources
Central banks use alt data mainly for research
Almost all respondents make use of alternative data in at least one application
Economists earn more than number-crunchers at central banks
On average, statisticians take home 88% of what economists earn
High-income central banks offer more training for economists
Over 52% sponsor economics/statistics staff to undertake PhDs; 100% sponsor other training