Central Banking Awards 2021
The winners of the 2021 Central Banking Awards
The Central Banking Awards 2021 recognise excellence in a community that faced extreme policy and operational challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. In spite of the challenges, many central banks have also continued with efforts to develop their governance, operations, communications, economics, currency, reserves, data and market infrastructure capabilities.
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The Central Banking Awards 2021 virtual ceremony
View the trophy presentations, acceptance comments and future predictions from the winners of the eighth annual Central Banking Awards
Central Banking Awards 2021: winners in full
Winners in 2021 include the Federal Reserve, Alejandro Díaz de León and Charles Goodhart
Central bank of the year: The Federal Reserve System
Overwhelming Fed interventions in March 2020 forestalled a damaging global financial crisis, as policy overhaul prompts introspection in Europe and Japan
Governor of the year: Alejandro Díaz de León
Díaz de León has upheld the authority, integrity and independence of the Bank of Mexico against significant external and internal pressures
Lifetime achievement: Charles Goodhart
The LSE and BoE veteran economist has his own ‘law’, and played a key role in the establishment of monetary policy in the UK, Hong Kong’s peg and the ‘New Zealand model’, which influenced a generation of central bankers
Economics in central banking: ‘Patterns in invoicing currency in global trade’, Emine Boz, Camila Casas, Georgios Georgiadis, Gita Gopinath, Helena Le Mezo, Arnaud Mehl and Tra Nguyen
An extensive data-gathering exercise allowed the authors to shed new light on critical aspects of policy-making in a globalised world, while clearing a path for other researchers to follow
Reserve manager of the year: Bank Indonesia
The Asian central bank stabilised the rupiah’s fall during the Covid-19 pandemic in large part due to its new macro-factor strategic asset allocation framework
Green initiative: Bank of England
UK central bank breaks path for others by disclosing climate-related risk across all operations
Initiative of the year: Saudi Central Bank’s business continuity programme
Advanced planning has allowed Sama employees and systems to continue operating critical functions despite the Covid-19 lockdowns
Risk manager: National Bank of Georgia
Liquidity stress tests provided confidence to ease daily thresholds, and offer exchange rate, internal market and financial system support, without forcing the liquidation of illiquid reserves
Currency manager: National Bank of Ukraine
Ukraine’s decisive actions to cut currency denominations while upgrading banknotes and coins are starting to pay off
Currency initiative: The ECB and US Federal Reserve’s CDI2 standards
The issuers of the world’s two most international currencies have created an important new technical standard to support more efficient cash management
Communications initiative: Bank of Portugal
The launch of two mobile apps marked the final steps to redesign digital communication channels with both the public and own employees
Website: Central Bank of the Philippines
BSP says its website’s mobile-friendly design and chatbot has boosted effectiveness of communication
Transparency: National Bank of Georgia
Georgia’s central bank has improved communications on monetary policy, financial stability and consumer protection
Payments and market infrastructure development – retail: Central Bank of Hungary
The Hungarian central bank’s strict implementation requirements and unique operational setup has supported the acceleration towards electronic payments during the pandemic
Payments and market infrastructure development – wholesale: Reserve Bank of New Zealand
New Zealand’s central bank has embraced major payments infrastructure changes to reduce risk and future-proof the country’s payments landscape
Asset manager: BNP Paribas Asset Management
The European asset manager has leveraged its focus on official institutions, expertise in MBS, training, reporting and ESG compliance to grow its business with central banks
Climate initiative: HSBC
The UK bank is working closely with central banks and other official institutions to support the transition towards a greener global system
Innovation in reserve management: World Bank Treasury/ANZ Bank
The pair developed a Swift-based messaging app to manage faster and safer cash operations for central bank members of Ramp at the height of the pandemic
Climate portfolio services: RepRisk
The Swiss company’s machine learning tool checks reports on 160,000 companies daily from a host of sources in 20 languages to offer central banks and SWFs early warnings on climate-related risks
Specialised lending initiative: Clearstream
Clearstream supports eurozone central bank asset purchase programmes by returning liquidity to the market through securities lending while helping Asian and American central banks secure access to this market
Global markets award: BNP Paribas
The bank shone across a wide range of business areas and regions during the turbulence of Covid-19
Advisory services: Oliver Wyman
The consultancy has built a reputation for analytical excellence and governance expertise, and counts leading central banks across the globe as its clients
Currency services: Crane Currency
The firm supported the needs of clients throughout the pandemic, while continuing to innovate with the launch of micro-optic security features
Currency services initiative: CCL Secure
The banknote substrate provider is making a concerted effort to reduce its environmental impact by optimising production processes and building a recycling plant in Mexico
Collateral management services: Calypso Technology
The US-headquartered tech company has helped to develop the “new backbone” of the Swiss financial market, offering flexibility, standardisation and automation to the Swiss collateral management process
Risk management technology: Ion Treasury
The US firm has championed Libor transition services, and supported reserve managers manage positions during the coronavirus shock
Treasury systems initiative: Refinitiv
The firm’s data-driven approach is helping central banks stay ahead of fast-moving markets
Financial market infrastructure services: Bloomberg
Bloomberg’s responsive deployment of new liquidity capabilities helped emerging-market central banks cope with pandemic market disruption
Payment services: ACI Worldwide
ACI has emerged as an important provider of real-time digital payments software, helping banks and small companies connect to core central bank infrastructure
