The Americas
Financial market infrastructure services: SIA
The Italian company impressed with its multi-year work on the ‘big-bang’ implementation of Canada’s new RTGS
Fed’s Bostic: uncertainty is hallmark of current economy
Atlanta Fed chief sees myriad forces pushing up inflation, but warns Fed may still tighten too fast
Problem of recruiting and retaining fintech talent persists
Salaries a key issue alongside skill set attainment
Economics Benchmarks 2021 report – making sense of the modern economy
Covid-19 coloured central banks’ views on the governance of their economics function in the past year, from research topics to forecasting, data, publications and more
Book notes: Shades of sovereignty, by Paul Wilson
An essential and stimulating read for central bankers thinking about the monetary history of their state in relation to its historical perspective and broad international trends
Currency Benchmarks 2021 report – executive summary
Perspectives on staffing, circulation, forecasting, note security and composition, outsourcing and more
Covid-19 causes bigger growth forecast errors
But central banks perform better at forecasting inflation
Economists tend to perform both policy and research duties
Only around a quarter of economics departments have a pure research function
Monetary Policy Benchmarks 2021 report – executive summary
Insights into the staff that work on monetary policy, decision-making, tools, transparency and market operations
Press conferences tend to be held for every monetary policy decision
The events can be a valuable tool for policy transparency and clarity
Asset purchase programmes prevalent among advanced economies
But just 17% of emerging market economies said they operate a purchase programme
Third parties often develop RTGS technology
Seventy-one percent of respondents said the technology underpinning their RTGS system was developed solely by a third party or in collaboration with the central bank
Most central banks communicate in at least two languages
Central banks must weigh challenge of translating sensitive messages against reach
Email top for internal central bank communications
In-house platforms, events and seminars also widely used
Monitoring tools critical to measuring comms effectiveness
Facebook and YouTube remain most popular social media options, but some central banks are experimenting with others
Vast majority of central banks provide communications training
Social media, writing skills and public speaking emerged as key areas
Academics miss out on central bank background briefings
After journalists, private sector analysts are offered briefings most often
Fintech communication is most challenging for central banks
Central banks view fintech as greatest challenge, but rate monetary policy communication highly
The Belt and Road Initiative 2021 Survey – The impact of Covid‑19 on the BRI
The fourth annual Belt and Road Initiative survey reveals that the Covid‑19 pandemic has disrupted many projects despite China remaining committed to financing the initiative, which is expected to support future economic growth and environmental…
People: US set to name OCC chief; IMF’s Werner to retire
New deputy governor appointed in India; former Ecuadorian general manager dies; and more
Greening the central banks
What are members of the NGFS doing to ‘green’ their own operations? Officials from the central banks of Belgium, Canada and Morocco highlight some of their initiatives
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
Payment innovation is top fintech research priority for central banks
CBDC ranked second as central banks explore wider implications of fintech for payments
IMF adjusts growth forecasts upward
Fund warns of uneven and unequal recovery, but is more optimistic than it was in October