The Americas
Most circulating stablecoins pegged to the greenback
Jurisdictions with stablecoins in use are largely high and upper-middle income countries
Financial stability seen as top risk from private digital money
Concerns differ somewhat by region
Majority of CBDCs designed to be domestic only
But a fifth of central banks are working on multi-currency CBDCs
Central banks report 28 operational bitcoin ATMs on average
Jurisdictions with larger institutions have the most machines
CBDCs politicised in one in five jurisdictions
Public and private sectors mostly concerned about privacy of digital currencies
Fintech licences issued yearly remain below 10 on average
Number of fintechs in operation averages just over 60
Central banks keep trialling link between wCBDC and RTGS
Most respondents motivated to issue wCBDC to enable financial innovation
Majority of central banks still lack CBDC issuance powers
Legal mandates are scarce in both larger and smaller central banks
Two in five CBDCs designed to be programmable
Over half of respondents’ retail CBDC projects are at research phase
Working group minutes: strategic planning structures
Central banks are adapting their strategic planning functions and adopting digital tools
Lenders use strict covenants to hedge against rate hikes – study
US banks exposed to policy volatility use breaches to cut lending in tightening cycles, authors say
Fed risks president’s ire by holding rates
Experts say decision was obvious way to go, given US labour market and inflation figures
Fed fractures post-SVB consensus on emergency liquidity
New supervisory principles support FHLB funding over discount window preparedness
Fed pivots to material risk – but what is it, exactly?
Top US bank regulator will prioritise risks that matter most, but they could prove hard to pinpoint
Supreme Court appears sympathetic to Cook
Conservative judges lament the way governor’s removal was handled and risks to Fed independence
Risk management reviews are most common assessment method
Centralised teams are less likely to conduct external or management evaluations
UK’s Orange Book risk approach rarely used by central banks
Only three centralised risk management departments utilise principle
Sticky fears about sticky inflation
Survey finds investors are not yet ready to declare victory on inflation – with good reason
Staff error is largest cause of op risk at central banks
Legacy systems tend to trigger most threats in jurisdictions with greater than average number of incidents
Experts decry ‘show trial’ of Fed chair
Probe slammed as politically motivated attack on Powell for doing his job
Central bank governors express ‘full solidarity’ with Powell
Lagarde and Bailey among signatories of statement in wake of Department of Justice investigation
Op risk incidents average over 100 a year among central banks
Financial impact is risk managers’ strongest metric for gauging incidents’ severity
Collateral velocity is disappearing behind a digital curtain
Dealers may welcome digital-era rewiring to free up collateral movement, but tokenisation will obscure metrics
