Feature
Payments and market infrastructure provider of the year: Perago
The software company is helping central banks around the world implement reliable and highly adaptable RTGS and retail payments systems
Technology consultant of the year: Vizor Software
The Dublin-based company continued to grow its client base in 2017, proving its mettle in emerging markets, with the addition of Brunei’s central bank and the Zambian pensions and insurance regulator
Risk management services provider of the year: Openlink
Openlink’s central bank and state agency client base continues to grow, with the addition of a number of new clients, including Queensland Treasury Corporation
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