Central Banking Journal
Book notes: Floored!, by George Selgin
Michael Reddell remains unconvinced the Fed’s introduction of the IOR prolonged the recession, but credits Selgin’s argument the IOR policy made the central bank a more powerful credit lender
Book notes: Finance and philosophy, by Alex J Pollock
A readable and useful book that provides much food for thought, and should be read widely by economists and policy-makers
Book notes: Where economics went wrong, by David Colander and Craig Freedman
Chicago economics’ gladiatorial debating style has cost the discipline dearly, the authors argue
Climate change: a new challenge for financial stability?
Do climate change and the transition to a low-carbon economy pose a risk to financial stability? What is the role of central banks?
The role of e-cash in China
The use of e-cash stored on integrated circuit cards notably reduces cash handling fees and increases security. It also offers greater convenience notwithstanding the rise of mobile payments
The Brexit conundrum
The Bank of England has only limited room to respond to a hard Brexit
Renminbi reserves are still relatively small
Renminbi investments still account for a much smaller fraction of global forex reserves than China’s significance in the world economy would merit
Lifetime achievement: Zhou Xiaochuan
The former People’s Bank of China governor stands out for his high levels of integrity, intellectual rigour and bold reforms that have served the public interest in China and elsewhere
Governor of the year: Karnit Flug
The Bank of Israel’s first female governor delivered some hard-fought reforms during her time in office, and also stood up to the government and safeguarded macroeconomic stability
Central bank of the year: Monetary Authority of Singapore
Singapore’s central bank stands out for its pioneering fintech efforts combined with its consistency of performance in monetary policy, financial stability and supervision
Economics in central banking: Greg Kaplan, Benjamin Moll and Gianluca Violante
Authors’ paper, ‘Monetary policy according to Hank’, boosts the realism of core economic models, delivering important insights into inequality and the transmission of monetary policy
Website of the year: Sveriges Riksbank
The Swedish central bank has redesigned and restructured its website to great effect, with users staying longer and engaging with more content
Risk manager: Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority
A multi-year overhaul of the Saudi central bank’s risk architecture has come to fruition, resulting in radical changes in behaviour
Risk management technology: Vermeg
Having successfully delivered the collateral management module of its Megara system to four major central banks, Vermeg has won a high-profile tender to deliver the technology for the Eurosystem Collateral Management System
Professional services initiative: World Gold Council
Having identified seven different ways of accounting for monetary gold among 70 central banks, the WGC developed guidance to bring greater consistency to accounting practices
Advisory services: Deloitte
Deloitte has a growing central bank footprint, including new projects on strategy and cyber resilience in Canada, fintech in Saudi Arabia and DLT in Hong Kong
Treasury systems initiative: Ion Treasury
Ion’s acquisition of Openlink in 2018 has boosted its central bank and agency clients to 65, with a new ECB contract being a ‘jewel in its crown’
Data services: Vizor Software
The Irish tech company has rolled out major updates to pave the way for more agile supervision as its scalable system won major repeat business with Sama and the Bank of England
Book notes: Democratizing Money?, by Beat Weber
This is a timely book about ‘how money really works’
Outstanding contribution for capacity building: Warren Coats
For his extraordinary life’s work in helping to put more than 20 central banks – from those in former Soviet republics to those recovering from war – on a sounder footing
Transparency: National Bank of Ukraine
The Ukrainian central bank has made strong progress in improving its transparency during a highly challenging operating environment
Payments and market infrastructure development: Reserve Bank of Australia
The RBA has spearheaded the development of an upgraded retail payment system that includes real-time settlement
Currency manager: Bank of Israel
The Israeli central bank is revolutionising the way it manages the country’s banknotes while maintaining security and preparing for the future
Currency services: De La Rue
2018 was a busy year for the UK-based banknote provider as it secured new clients and transformed its focus towards technology