Asia
Wallstreet and others rank highest for reserves technology services
Ion’s Wallstreet treasury system tops the 2023 rankings
Reserve managers rank JP Morgan top for custody and banking
BlackRock preferred for knowledge transfer and capacity building
Reserve managers vote BlackRock as overall best asset manager
Goldman Sachs and “other” asset management firms also score highly
High income countries less likely to tranche reserves
Overall, 72.4% of central banks divide their portfolios into liquidity and investment sections
Fewer than half of reserve managers perform liquidity stress tests
Approach tends to be more common among African and American institutions
Asian central banks hold rates
Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan and Hong Kong stay put
FX reserves commonly invested in US Treasuries, bank deposits
SIBs and EU NextGeneration fund trail behind, as reserve managers avoid infrastructure and crypto
Few central banks expanded existing swap lines over the past year
Nearly one-third of new and existing lines are denominated in US dollars
Critic urges UK to leave China-based lender
Treasury says UK will stay in AIIB as ex-official calls some employees “useful idiots”
Trade in other currencies will reduce USD reserves share, say managers
Over 72% of respondents believe efforts to denominate trade in other currencies will have long-term effect
External managers hired to set up new asset classes and train staff
Central banks also look to external managers to boost returns and access market intelligence
Reserve managers cut duration as top inflation-proofing strategy
No respondent reports expansion into non-conventional assets
Boards responsible for benchmark approval at most central banks
Over half of lower-middle income respondents favour investment committee over other methods
Central banks’ average import coverage ratio falls further
Upper-middle income institutions tend to have a higher ratio
Fabio Panetta to chair CPMI
Eddie Yue to lead emerging market committee, as Perry Warjiyo stays on as Asia committee chair
Reserve management staff salaries increase by almost 6% from last year
Staff in Europe remain the best paid globally
Managers divided on sanctions effect on US dollar as reserve currency
Over 43% say it will weaken its status, but nearly 40% say it will not have meaningful long-term impact
Timor-Leste to appoint new governor – report
Helder Lopes said to be in line to become second leader of central bank
Vietnam joins South-east Asian cross-border payment bloc
Six Asian central banks have joined forces to build faster and cheaper cross-border payments
Almost all central banks run stress tests on lenders
Most respondents say they conduct tests more than once a year
Housing markets worry high income countries’ central banks
Middle income countries point to inflation and cyber crime as sources of risk
Most central banks say cross-border cyber co-operation is good
Respondents from upper-middle income countries most likely to say co-operation could improve
Most central banks report rise in cyber attacks
Majority say they co-operate well with other agencies on cyber risks
Central bank communicators at a time of transparency
Specialists discuss the evolving roles of comms staff in the policy-making process