Monetary operations: Tools and techniques for policy implementation
About the course
How are central banks preparing and adapting their monetary operations frameworks in times of uncertainty shaped by geoeconomic stress, market volatility, and new and evolving global risks?
How are monetary policy and operational decision-making being influenced by rising commodity prices, supply chain disruptions, and labour market pressures?
In an increasingly interconnected financial system, shared global and bi-lateral relationships can lead to shared disruptions. How are central banks managing cross-border risks and safeguarding monetary and financial stability?
These are some of the main challenges facing those working in monetary operations in 2026. The key to uncertain markets in times like these is to manage expectations, internally and externally, and among markets and stakeholders, and to streamline internal operations. Yet the fast-paced nature of financial markets renders this communication far from straightforward. This course is designed to equip central bankers to meet these challenges.
Tutors
Niko Herrala
Bank of Finland
Head of monetary policy implementation
Head of monetary policy implementation and financial market analysis at the Bank of Finland. Niko’s team is responsible for credit operations to Finnish banks, monetary policy asset purchases, liquidity management and financial market analysis covering fixed income, money market, FX, equities and commodities. He is also a member of ESCB’s Working Group on Monetary Policy Implementation.
María del Carmen Castillo
Bank of Spain
Senior expert in monetary policy operations and liquidity management
María del Carmen Castillo is a Senior Expert in Monetary Policy Operations and Liquidity Management at Banco de España, where she has worked since 2008. Her work focuses on matters related to the monetary policy implementation and liquidity forecasting. She has also worked temporarily at the European Central Bank and completed an External Work Experience at Banca d’Italia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and an MBA from the Universitat de València, and she represents Banco de España in several working groups within the Eurosystem and with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
Daniel Sunesson
Sveriges Riksbank
Head of division for balance sheet analysis, markets department
For the past 15 years, Daniel has worked on different aspects of macro financial issues and international economic cooperation at Sveriges Riksbank, the Ministry of Finance and the National Audit Office. He has a PhD in Finance and MSc in Engineering Physics.
Filippo Pasqualone
Bank of Italy
Head, money market and liquidity analysis team
Filippo Pasqualone is Head of the Italian Liquidity Management Team in the Market Operations Directorate of the Bank of Italy. His areas of expertise include central bank liquidity management and forecasting, monetary policy implementation, banks’ demand for reserves, and money market functioning. Since joining the Bank of Italy in 2010, he has held various positions in the fields of money market analysis, open market operations, and foreign exchange operations. He has contributed to Eurosystem and Bank of Italy research on monetary policy implementation, liquidity conditions and repo market functioning and has been involved in the preparatory work underpinning the ECB’s operational framework review.
Kathrin Möhlmann
Deutsche Bundesbank
Deputy head of division, policy issues relating to monetary policy implementation
Kathrin Möhlmann is Deputy Head of Monetary Policy Implementation Issues at DG Markets of Deutsche Bundesbank. Since 2014, she has been working on topics related to monetary policy implementation, design of monetary policy instruments and the central bank balance sheet. In her former roles, she also worked for Banque de France in 2018 and Central Bank of Ireland in 2016. Before her career as a central banker, Kathrin worked in the Treasury and M&A department of a German corporate.
Agenda
Day 1: 30th September
Monetary policy in 2026: leaning with or against the wind?
- Assessment of dilemmas, conflicts and trade-offs between monetary operations and the financial stability mandate
- Implications for central banks’ independence and accountability
- Overview of key dynamics that will shape future monetary policy operational frameworks
The new toolkit for optimising monetary operations
- Evolution of approaches for managing monetary policy operations and domestic liquidity
- Key features of the modern monetary operations toolkit
- Frameworks for tackling challenges at both day-to-day and strategic levels
- Implications of emerging financial innovations on monetary operations frameworks
International monetary policy spillovers and responses
- Effects of higher inflation/tighter monetary policy in the core countries
- What is an appropriate measure of core inflation?
- Examples of monetary policy spillovers from emerging to advanced market economies
- How to measure spillovers?
- Overview of measures taken in emerging markets in response to these effects
- Could macroeconomic policies in the core have microeconomic implications?
Day 2: 1st October
Liquidity management in different regimes
- Liquidity management and exchange rate regime: different means and different goals
- Corridor vs. floor systems: implications for liquidity management and forecasting
- Market volatility and the regulatory demand for liquidity
- Liquidity forecasting tools and techniques
What next for central bank balance sheets?
- Quantitative easing: a remedy for liquidity problems
- Key components of quantitative easing as a generalised expansionary policy
- Benefits and drawbacks of the shift to a floor system of money market operations
The balancing act of maintaining policy solvency
- The concept of “solvency” for central banks
- Consequences of financial weakness
- Distribution mechanisms and recapitalisation
- Assessing capital adequacy: a forward-looking approach
What (not) to say to markets, when, and how?
- The role of market communications in monetary policy design and implementation
- Forward guidance as a policy tool
- Frameworks that ensure central banks’ messages are consistent and context-sensitive
- Practical examples: how to communicate in times of market stress or volatility
Learning objectives
- Understand the main challenges facing monetary operations
Explore operational toolkits utilised by peer central banks
- Discuss how to respond to monetary policy spillovers
Gain skills in liquidity forecasting and management
Examine the effects of quantitative easing/tightening
Learn how to best communicate policy decisions with markets
Who should attend
Relevant titles and departments may include, but are not limited to:
- Monetary operations departments
- Monetary policy implementation departments
- Heads of monetary operations
- Heads of market operations
- Monetary/market operations officers/analysts
- Heads of monetary policy
- Heads of monetary policy implementation
- Policy advisors
- Policy analysts
- Heads of financial markets
- Financial market officers/analysts
- Heads of financial operations
- Liquidity forecasting analysts
- Inflation forecasting analysts
- Market intelligence officers
- Banking and securities operations operatives