CB In Depth
Book notes: The pay off, by Gottfried Leibbrandt and Natasha de Terán
A timely introduction to and accessible survey of payment system developments
An assessment of the ECB’s strategy review
A number of aspects of the new framework raise challenges for implementation and credibility, while the inclusion of climate change may politicise the institution, writes euro architect Otmar Issing
The IMF’s $650bn SDR allocation and a future ‘digital SDR’
Focus is needed on widening SDR use in payments and the creation of a ‘digital SDR’, to support a large allocation of ‘official’ IMF SDRs, writes Warren Coats
The ‘golden age’ of central banking has passed
Central banks face multi-faceted challenges and weakened autonomy amid highly polarised inflation expectations
Somalia’s governor on rebuilding its central bank
Governor Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi discusses reviving Somalia’s war-damaged economy, re-creating a payments system, and dealing with remittances
BIS’s Luiz Pereira on tackling the climate crisis
Deputy general manager highlights the challenge posed by radical uncertainty, the benefits of carbon budgeting, and the case for acting now
MAS’s Vincent Loy and Celine Sia on transforming data management
The assistant managing directors explain how uniting business and technology functions is opening up new possibilities for data collection, governance and analytics
Charles Goodhart on inflation targets, financial stability and the role of money
The LSE professor says inflation targets should have been 0%, the Fed’s move to AIT is a mistake, independence is under threat from inflation, big balance sheets support liquidity, AI can help supervisors and climate stress tests are unconvincing
CBDC: the case for ‘wait and see’
Despite growing interest, some central banks are staying out of the digital currency game
‘Run it hot’: the risks and rewards of a new policy era
Covid-19 has added impetus to an emerging intellectual shift in policy-making. But central banks face unresolved issues – on expectations, on fiscal policy, and on the capacity of the economy to ‘run hot’
Should the Fed’s Fima facility be made permanent?
The emergency repo facility reassures reserve managers about access to dollar cash during a breakdown in the US Treasuries market
Benoît Cœuré on CBDCs, stablecoins and central bank fintech co-operation
BIS Innovation Hub chief voices concerns about the timing of stablecoin and CBDC roll-outs, fintech risks for supervisors and monetary policy, and details development plans for eight innovation locations
Book notes: Quantitative easing, by Jonathan Ashworth
Well-documented and fairly comprehensive book for anyone, including central bankers, wanting an overview of how monetary policy has evolved in recent decades
Cash infrastructure as public good – implications for the cash cycle
Efforts are under way in the Eurosystem to safeguard cash infrastructure as a ‘public good’ even as transaction volumes have fallen significantly. How can policy-makers strike the right balance?
Book notes: The handbook of China’s financial system, edited by Marlene Amstad, Sun Guofeng and Xiong Wei
An important, comprehensive and informed overview of the current state of the Chinese financial system
The evolving ‘strategy function’ in central banks
Some institutions participating in a survey of 27 central banks still struggle to fully harness an effective ‘strategy function’, according to the ECB’s Jean-Charles Sevet and Alejandro de la Cuesta
Governors Nabiullina, Tabaković and Bezhoska on systemic risk and women in power
Russia, Serbia and North Macedonia governors discuss bank reforms, corruption and the Covid-19 crisis
Zhang Tao on the IMF’s fintech agenda, CBDCs and big tech oversight
IMF deputy managing director speaks about the fund’s perspectives on CBDC operating frameworks, regulating big tech and macrofinancial oversight in a digital world
Book notes: The political economy of bank regulation in developing countries, edited by Emily Jones
A pioneering academic – but reader-friendly – monograph on the response of peripheral countries to Basel standards
Book notes: Central banks as fiscal players, by Willem Buiter
Buiter puts a real economic problem into a convincing theoretical frame, and translates it into applicable policy advice
Regulating big tech and non-bank financial services in the digital era
Big tech incursions into financial services in China and elsewhere demonstrate the potential benefits of adopting a digital-bank or holding-company approach to financial regulation
A rebuttal of Philip Turner’s criticism of the BIS ‘house view’
Robert Pringle critiques the key findings raised in Philip Turner’s occasional paper, ‘The new monetary policy revolution: advice and dissent’
Book notes: Economic philosophies, by Alessandro Roselli
Roselli’s analytical and historical exploration is especially valuable now, writes Robert Pringle
Central Banking Awards 2021: winners in full
Winners in 2021 include the Federal Reserve, Alejandro Díaz de León and Charles Goodhart