National Bank of Austria
Banknotes: July to September 2023
A round-up of news and salient issues that have affected central bankers in the past three months

Currency round-up: Austrian leader calls for right to cash
US Mint continues quarters programme; Bangladesh adopts “clean note” policy; and more

Machine learning pushes frontier of forecasting
AI techniques are starting to transform central banks’ modelling

Austria introduces new clearing service
Central bank welcomes lender-owned company’s oversight of new system
The behind-the-scenes effort to convert Ukrainian refugee cash
How central and commercial banks worked to allow Ukrainians to exchange cash in wartime
Managing risk with ETFs
Central Banking speaks to eight reserve managers about their thoughts on the use of ETFs, faced with market volatility, uncertainty and escalating inflation
Austria’s Partsch explains decision to raise equity exposures
Central bank boosted equity investments from 5% to 12% in wake of pandemic
ECB calls for changes to draft Austrian central bank law
Mechanism for paying productivity council’s head would be monetary financing, ECB says
Too great expectations from the ECB’s strategy review
The review process represents operational best practice, but will fail to unify the Governing Council
Ignoring fire sales weakens stress tests – Bank of Austria paper
Paper presents new method for calculating effects of deleveraging by distressed banks
Number of women in financial services is ‘pathetic’ – IMF’s Georgieva
IMF and ECB heads say central banks must increase representation of women
European central bankers see room for fiscal-monetary co-operation
Pandemic showed it was “critical” for both policies to work together, say central bank governors
Austrian paper estimates effects of European helicopter money
Researchers use data on likely consumption of windfall income from survey of 17 European countries
Contactless cards change young people’s payment habits - OeNB paper
Researchers use data on randomly selected 21,000 banking customers in Switzerland
Specialised lending initiative: BNP Paribas
New ‘global’ setup helped secure US dollar-denominated assets from a Eurosystem central bank
Crypto assets may force central banks into policy synchronisation
Paper examines the impact a global crypto asset would have on the “impossible trinity”
ECB monetary policy statements should change – Italian governor
Visco rejects idea of putting names to votes as eurozone governors differ on inflation policy
New Austrian governor says ECB should tighten policy
Robert Holzmann is distinguished pensions specialist and supporter of hard-right political party
ECB queries changes to Austrian central bank law
But collapse of government puts future of draft law and identity of next governor in doubt
Austrian central bank gives strong warning on draft regulation law
Changes would harm balance and efficiency and increase influence of special interests – OeNB
Austrian far-right party nominates economist for governor
Robert Holzmann has distinguished career as pensions specialist, but political links may cause controversy
People: Former Malawian governor dies
Mathews Chikaonda served as governor in the 1990s; new senior appointments made at the BIS; and more
Agent-based models: a new frontier for macroeconomics?
Agent-based modelling is still struggling to move from sidelines to mainstream
Financial literacy differs greatly between countries – OeNB paper
Some differences are due to survey methods but others may reflect institutional factors, find researchers