Central Banking Awards 2026: second group of winners

Bruno Tiberto of the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) has won this year’s Economics in central banking award, part of the second group of Central Banking Awards 2026 winners, unveiled today (March 12).

Other winners include the Bank of England for transparency, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) for its communications campaign, the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CBBH) for its efforts in strengthening financial stability. Oliver Wyman is recogsnied for its advisory services, Regnology for its regtech/suptech services and Vermeg for its technology services.

Central Banking will publish two more tranches of awards in the coming days, on March 17 and 19.

Economics in central banking: In February 2021, long-awaited legislation was passed granting the BCB operational independence from government. The law strengthened the BCB’s ability to pursue price stability without government interference but left out a crucial element: financial autonomy. The government still sets salaries and budgets at the BCB, giving it a powerful source of leverage over the central bank.

That may be set to change, with a new constitutional amendment currently being debated in the Brazilian National Congress. Supporting the legislative action is a piece of research by Tiberto, an economist at the BCB. His work, published in the Journal of International Money and Finance in December 2025 and also available as a BCB working paper, shows that central bank independence can counteract the tendency of inflation to worsen poverty and inequality.

“Bruno’s paper offers valuable guidance for Brazil’s ongoing institutional evolution,” says Gabriel Galípolo, governor of the BCB. “It demonstrates, through robust empirical evidence, that greater central bank independence enhances price stability and protects the most vulnerable from the harmful effects of inflation.

“These are lessons deeply rooted in Brazil’s long inflationary history – lessons we work tirelessly to ensure remain in the history books rather than our economic reality,” he adds.

Transparency award: The BoE has demonstrated that transparency for central banks often goes beyond engaging with a nebulously conceived ‘public’. It can also require targeted efforts that extend transparency to specific stakeholders and different areas of work.

Two noteworthy efforts were its adoption of legal entity identifiers into the Clearing House Automated Payment System for wholesale payments and a collaboration with a large digital media network to boost awareness of the central bank among 18–24-year-olds.

“From facilitating payments to engaging with younger audiences, the BoE is committed to transparency in every corner of the organisation,” says Andrew Bailey, the governor. “We’re delighted to have these efforts recognised with this award.”

Communications initiative: As financial losses to scams and fraud grow worldwide, central banks are dedicating more resources to combat this challenge. Communication is key to this effort, with novel and unconventional methods often required for messages to cut through to citizens.

Recognising the need to tackle financial fraud, the HKMA took the unconventional step of having deputy chief executive Arthur Yuen star in a music video alongside Cantonese pop veteran Wan Kwong. The campaign also cleverly leveraged a Cantonese pun to create a memorable ‘despicable banana’ character – seemingly harmless on the outside, but with a sinister nature hiding beneath the surface, like the methods used by fraudsters to target Hong Kongers.

“Bold and innovative campaigns that resonate with various segments of the population are needed to stay ahead of evolving threats,” says Eddie Yue, chief executive of the HKMA.

He adds: “We benefit immensely from the global regulatory community through collaboration and experience sharing. Financial scams are without border. We hope that by working together, we can foster financially resilient public in different parts of the world.”

Financial stability initiative: Ensuring stability is hard enough at the best of times. Doing so in a country that still bears the scars of conflict poses formidable challenges. The treaty that ended the Bosnian war in 1995 bequeathed a fractured state, with separate institutions representing the country’s Muslims and Croats on the one hand and its Serbs on the other. Effecting change involves careful negotiations with multiple stakeholders.

As one of the few truly pan-national institutions, the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2025 adopted a holistic approach to tackling the root causes of potential financial instability and took early action to mitigate the risks. This included engagement on a range of initiatives relating to instant payments, cyber security, ESG standards, gender inclusivity and currency reform.

“We push the limits and through strengthening of our payment system, cyber resilience, gender inclusivity and other structural reforms we continue to reinforce institutional resilience and support economic growth of BIH, even within a complex operating environment,” says Jasmina Selimović, governor of the CBBH.

Advisory services: Oliver Wyman’s expertise on crisis management has been called upon repeatedly by central banks and other organisations in recent years. One of the firm’s most challenging projects has been supporting the Central Bank of Iraq in rebuilding confidence in the national banking system after the US banned several lenders from carrying out US dollar transactions. 

Oliver Wyman’s crisis management work also operates alongside a wider book of business for financial authorities, spanning strategy, leadership and operating models, as well as technology and operational capabilities, including consultancy work on the digital euro.

“We are honoured to be recognised for serving centuries-old institutions that contribute to economic prosperity by safeguarding the financial system and sustaining public trust in money,” says Davide Taliente, the global chair of government and public institutions practice at Oliver Wyman. “A fundamental re-think is required as market innovation and politics continue to challenge orthodoxy and governance.”

Regtech/suptech services: In response to mounting regulatory demands from pan-European bodies such as the European Banking Authority (EBA), the Andorran Financial Authority struggled with a legacy infrastructure that lacked the agility to manage rising data volumes and evolving reporting requirements.

To support its digital transformation, the AFA conducted a competitive tender process that resulted in the deployment of the Regnology Supervisory Hub (RSH). Implemented in September 2024, with the go-live in February 2025, the hub  delivers end-to-end automation and near real-time supervision, hosted on the Regnology’s Rcloud infrastructure – while Regnology’s earlier clients have used private cloud, the AFA was the first to move to public cloud.

“Partnering with over 100 regulators worldwide gives us unique insights to reimagine supervision,” says Linda Middleditch, Regnology’s chief product officer. “This highly-valued award validates the strength of the Regnology Supervisory Hub in advancing risk-based supervision and data-driven oversight, shaping regulatory practices for the future.”

Technology services: Before the Eurosystem Collateral Management System (ECMS) – powered by Vermeg’s Megara platform – went live in June 2025, the eurozone’s collateral operations were fragmented across more than 20 national systems, each with its own procedures and interfaces.

The launch of the ECMS marked a transformation in European market infrastructure. The system now effectively runs the collateral management operations for all eurozone central banks, connecting more than 2,500 financial institutions and managing a nominal amount of approximately €20 trillion ($23.7 trillion) in eligible marketable assets across the Eurosystem.

“We’re proud to receive Central Banking’s Technology services award for the second consecutive year,” says Khaled Ben Abdeljelil, general manager of capital markets Europe and UK at Vermeg. “This recognition reaffirms the market’s trust in Vermeg as the leading provider of systemically important IT solutions supporting central banks worldwide.”