Benchmarking
Emerging-market central banks lead on women’s empowerment
EME central banks have more women at staff level and in senior positions, but there are deep disparities worldwide, with childcare availability appearing to be a major cause
Most central banks spend less than 20% of their IT budget on security
Average spend was 16% of IT budget
Central banks take less than 50 minutes to fix critical outages
Time tolerances for critical system downtime range from one to 32 hours
Average IT salaries are highest in Europe
Pay varies by income of institutions’ host economies
Payment innovation is top fintech research priority for central banks
CBDC ranked second as central banks explore wider implications of fintech for payments
High income economy central banks’ technology costs vary widely
Some central banks in advanced economies have kept costs as low as those in poorer nations
Large economy central banks more likely to employ CTO
Slight majority of central banks employ CTO, but differences are clearer when sorted by GDP
Most central banks do not have dedicated fintech departments
Fintech operations tend to be spread across departments
Most central banks hold annual cyber security training sessions
One-third of central banks hold training every 0–6 months
Cyber security and retaining top talent are biggest tech challenges
Keeping abreast of fintech developments also tests institutions
Payment innovation is top fintech spending priority
One-third of central banks say they are prioritising digital currencies
High income countries report greater numbers of licensed fintech firms
Some jurisdictions host many licensed fintech firms but others have none
Central banks struggle to retain fintech talent
Private sector competition lures employees away
How valuable is a PhD economist?
Heads of research from Canada, Israel and North Macedonia weigh the benefits of advanced economics education – and the challenge of retaining top staff
Central banks look to shockproof models in wake of Covid-19
The Covid-19 crisis caused many central bank models to break down. Economists at the St Louis Fed, Bank of Spain and ECB were quick to innovate and say they will continue testing new tools
Economics Benchmarks 2020 report – executive summary
Shedding light on economics governance, salaries, forecasting, research, publications and more
Economics Benchmarks 2020 – presentation
Central Banking’s economics subject matter specialist Daniel Hinge speaks with Christopher Jeffery about how central bank economists fared in a year where the Covid-19 pandemic upended the usual business of forecasting, analysis and research
Administrative data is most popular alternative data source
Central banks make use of a wide range of non-traditional data sources
Central banks use alt data mainly for research
Almost all respondents make use of alternative data in at least one application
Economists earn more than number-crunchers at central banks
On average, statisticians take home 88% of what economists earn
A ‘love-hate’ relationship with ESG screens
ESG screens seen as a first step in adopting sustainable investment practices, so why do so few central banks use them?
High-income central banks offer more training for economists
Over 52% sponsor economics/statistics staff to undertake PhDs; 100% sponsor other training
Few central banks forecast policy rates
Economics Benchmarks 2020 highlights wide variation in variables forecast by central banks