Central Banking Awards 2019: first winners announced

The first batch of the Central Banking Awards 2019 was unveiled today, with winners including the Bank of Mexico and Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ).

The Mexican central bank took the prize for reserve manager of the year, having successfully modified its strategic asset allocation process to better achieve its liquidity, capital preservation and return goals.

Governor Alejandro Díaz de León said financial markets were posing “unprecedented challenges” to reserve managers. “In this environment, our strategic asset allocation methodologies needed to become more forward looking, and our decision-making needed to rely on information extracted, not from historical data, but from current market prices and expectations,” he said.

The RBNZ won this year’s initiative award for its innovative financial strength dashboard. By revealing key metrics on the banking sector in a visual format that can be taken in at a glance, the central bank has hit on a simple method of boosting discipline among banks.

“Awareness amongst consumers and investors is an important aspect of ensuring a sound financial system,” said governor Adrian Orr. “Our financial strength dashboard is designed to make access to, and understanding of, New Zealand banks’ financial position easy and relevant.”

Among a bevy of awards going to private sector service providers, BNP Paribas Asset Management scooped the prize for innovation in reserve management, having helped a major central bank achieve greater flexibility in its asset allocations, while launching a multi-factor credit product.

State Street Global Advisors won the award for asset manager of the year. Its Official Institutions Group demonstrated the value of its global presence and thought leadership activities in a wide range of markets. SSGA chief executive Cyrus Taraporevala said the firm was “deepening our skill and knowledge transfers offering, beyond pure investment activities”.

Elsewhere, a trio of banks claimed awards for aspects of their work with central banks. HSBC took the prize for global markets, having proven its role as a trusted counterparty to central banks. The bank helped institutions seek out returns amid considerable market turbulence in the past year, and demonstrated the value of its strong links to China as the renminbi has grown in importance.

Citi won the award for custody initiative of the year. Counting the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund among its clients, the firm added a new data platform in the past year, Citi Velocity, to provide faster and more precise information to its customers.

Deutsche Bank was this year’s winner of the specialised lending award. The firm has provided securities lending services to five eurosystem monetary authorities involved in the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing programme, offering essential trading, risk, operations, compliance, legal and reporting infrastructure.