Feature
Initiative of the year: Bank of England’s FinTech Accelerator
The UK central bank has embraced fintech service providers in a controlled manner to bolster its cyber-security and payments capabilities
Banknote and currency services provider of the year: Landqart
The leading hybrid substrate provider offers the durability and increased security of polymer combined with the security features and customer familiarity of paper
Lifetime achievement award: Perng Fai-nan
Pre-emptive financial reforms combined with flexible monetary and forex policies have enabled Taiwan’s veteran governor to provide economic stability, even during turbulent times
Innovation in reserve management: HSBC
The global bank stepped in during Egypt’s economic crisis, arranging a private funding package that proved instrumental in turning around the country’s fortunes
Consultancy and advisory provider of the year (data and regulatory management): BearingPoint
BearingPoint’s expertise in data and reporting has informed a number of high-level bodies over the past year, including the Basel Committee and the IMF, following groundbreaking work in Austria
Banknote and currency manager of the year: Norges Bank
The Nordic central bank has redefined how its banknotes are designed, incorporating top-notch security and an innovative awareness campaign
Home truths on Europe’s NPLs
Europe needs to overcome fears of a hypothetical crisis, and impose more intrusive supervision and greater provisioning on its banks
Big data in central banks: 2017 survey
As an active area for new projects, big data is becoming a fixture in policymaking, with an increasing number of central banks carving out a budget for data handling, writes Emma Glass.
A new era for the BIS
As Basel III inches towards closure and a new BIS general manager prepares to move into his post, Jaime Caruana talks to Daniel Hinge about his eight years at the helm
Teaching machines to do monetary policy
Machine learning may not yet be at the stage where central bankers are being replaced with robots, but the field is bringing powerful tools to bear on big economic questions
The optimal size for central bank balance sheets
As the Fed seeks to reduce the assets on its balance sheets, Charles Goodhart examines the role between monetary and fiscal policy, central bank and debt office, and the optimal size of a central bank’s balance sheet
Kenya’s digital transformation
The use of innovative digital financial services has transformed financial inclusion in Kenya, writes the chairman of the Central Bank of Kenya
The candidates knocking at Yellen’s door
Leading academics and economists weigh the competency of the top candidates for the Fed job – and how likely they are to win Trump’s favour
Japan’s ineffective efforts at monetary easing
A study of the natural rate of interest indicates the Bank of Japan’s QQE may not have been as accommodative as claimed, Sayuri Shirai argues. The failings appear to be related to effectiveness, rather than scale
Financial regulation, the PBoC and Zhou’s legacy
Zhou Xiaochuan failed to secure a new ‘super-regulator’ under the PBoC, but has ensured the central bank has a strong voice on China’s new apex stability committee at a time of increased regulatory scrutiny
Where have all the women gone?
The number of women working at central banks has increased substantially, but a glass ceiling appears to remain for those reaching for senior management positions
The changing composition of central bank balance sheets
Quantitative easing may have been necessary, but it has created worrying distortions and has probably discouraged structural change, while deflecting attention away from ever-greater levels of debt leverage
Piecing together a financial theory of stagnation
Ideas presented at recent BIS annual meetings reveal an emerging framework that explains how the financial system may be dragging down the real economy; Hélène Rey was the latest to contribute
Addressing the eurozone’s ‘lemons’ problem for NPLs
State-supported securitisation of the riskiest tranches of eurozone bank NPLs could tackle information asymmetries between buyers and sellers, and restore market function
The BoJ’s exit policy and balance sheet risks
The Bank of Japan will need to follow a meticulous sequencing of events as its ‘normalises’ monetary policy, making current concerns about negative equity appear premature
The BoJ’s risky yield curve control experiment
The Bank of Japan’s experiment with yield curve control could work if appropriate targets and communication strategies were applied. But its current policy objectives are muddled
All aboard the blockchain
The underpinning architecture of bitcoin and other crypto-currencies – distributed ledger technology – has the potential to revolutionise digital payments, with some central banks working out how to harness ‘the blockchain’
The myth of independence
The US Federal Reserve stresses independence from government as central to its ability to fulfil its dual mandate. But much of the academic evidence that independent central banks generate better policy outcomes is fundamentally flawed, argues Thomas…
Should more attention be paid to house prices?
The Czech National Bank’s experiences offer insights into using a broader inflation measure with a greater weight on housing to address both monetary and macro-prudential policy requirements