Benchmarking
Boards with salary-setting duties have largest membership
Greatest number of non-execs appointed by government
Roughly 40% of central banks lack a monetary policy committee
Governing boards remain widely responsible for setting overall strategy
One in six central banks is being recapitalised
Process is ‘not as smooth as we would want it to be’, benchmark respondent says
Governors of smaller central banks earn slightly below global average
But governors’ salaries remain above $200,000 a year
European governors serve longest average term length
Central bank governors rarely appointed for one term or 3+ terms
One-fifth of central banks say governing laws are inappropriate
Government still sets salaries at one-tenth of jurisdictions
One in five smaller central banks lacks fining powers
Respondents still widely manage FX reserves and act as lender of last resort
Fintech Benchmarks 2026 – executive summary
Benchmarks shed light on the race between different digital assets, public and private
Less than half of central banks engaged in tokenisation work
Respondents widely consider bonds for tokenisation, among other asset class
Central banks divided over stablecoin impact on US debt demand
Respondents offer different views on adoption paths and market dynamics
Two-thirds of central banks predict CBDC adoption in 5–10 years
Stablecoin launches seen as more likely by authorities without CBDC mandate
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