Bank for International Settlements – BIS

On 2 and 3 December, the BIS, Banco de la República - Colombia and Banco Central de Chile hosted the 14th annual Consultative Council for the Americas (CCA) annual research conference in Bogotá. This year’s topic was the “macro-financial impact of climate change and environmental degradation”. The conference was organised by the CCA Scientific Committee, and it helped to conclude the CCA research network on macro-financial impact of climate change and environmental degradation, which has been running since December 2022. The conference brought together cutting-edge research from 11 central banks in the Americas, and the BIS. Marshall Burke (Stanford University) gave keynote remarks. Discussants came from academic and policy institutions from across the Americas and beyond. A big thanks to Governor Leonardo Villar Gómez and to Banco de la República for hosting the conference! The papers and presentation slides can be found at https://bit.ly/3ZG1rrg

On 18-19 December, senior banking supervisors and central bankers met in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for the AMF-BCBS-FSI High-level meeting on financial stability and regulatory and supervisory priorities. Topics discussed included emerging risks and trends in the region, current supervisory priorities, AI and central bank governance as well as the recent revision to the Basel Core Principles and crisis management. The meeting was co-organised by the Arab Monetary Fund, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and the Financial Stability Institute (FSI) of the Bank for International Settlements. The event brought together heads of supervisory authorities, central bank Governors and Deputy Governors, and high-level officials representing over 40 jurisdictions from the region and beyond, as well as senior private sector participants and academics. AMF Chair Fahad Alturki chaired a session on emerging risks and trends in the Arab world, and FSI Chair Fernando Restoy Lozano led a discussion on supervisory priorities amid the new geopolitical, economic and technological environment. #FinancialStabilityInstitute

The responsiveness of new housing supply to changes in house prices has declined across the world. This has implications for the transmission of monetary policy. Insights from #BISQuarterly #MonetaryPolicy #HousingMarket Read more here: https://bit.ly/41tMNpK

A few weeks ago, we invited children of our colleagues to help us to design this year’s BIS season’s greetings e-card, inspired by the theme of friendship. Here are their delightful submissions from our art competition. As we approach the end of the year, we share a selection of their submissions and wish you a joyful and cheerful holiday season!

The BIS international banking statistics reveal how banks structure their operations across home and host countries and why it matters for financial stability. Read more here: https://bit.ly/3D2PC6L #BISQuarterly #BISStatistics

Discover how to use large language models to enhance economic analysis. Our primer guides applied researchers in extracting insights from text data with practical guidance, hands-on examples and code. Read more here: https://bit.ly/3Bbk6TJ #Economics #AI #CentralBanking #BISQuarterly

Over 100 jurisdictions worldwide, including 15 jurisdictions in the Americas, have implemented a fast payment system (FPS). FPS are a promising tool to improve people’s payment experience, access to financial services and financial health. A new BIS Papers volume provides insights and lessons learned from a range of FPS. The volume represents a snapshot of current research on fast payments, with the aim to foster general understanding of this rapidly evolving topic and support sound policymaking. The overview chapter draws out general insights from experiences in the Americas, such as on the impact of fast payments on financial inclusion, the role of central banks and domestic and cross-border interoperability. The next chapter looks in greater depth at Pix in Brazil, and its complementarities with other means of payment. A further chapter dives into the experiences of SINPEMóvil in Costa Rica, including the impact on banks. The final chapter explores the experience of UPI in India. Following a joint workshop on fast payments with the The World Bank in May, this volume makes available related research on FPS for a general audience. https://bit.ly/4fmvwlt

The BIS’s Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) has extended the deadline for firms that offer cross-border payment services and relevant industry associations to nominate senior representatives to serve on the taskforce on cross-border payments interoperability and extension (PIE taskforce). Enhancing cross-border payments' speed and transparency, increasing access to safe and efficient cross-border payment services and reducing their costs are the key objectives of the G20 cross-border payments programme. The programme’s success requires private sector stakeholders’ initiative and support. To this end, this taskforce was established in early 2023. It is chaired by Ulrich Bindseil, Director General Market Infrastructure and Payments, European Central Bank. Institutions that fully support the objective of safe and efficient cross-border payments and are committed to work towards achieving the G20 targets on enhanced cross-border payments are invited to propose candidates to become a member of the PIE taskforce for 2025-26. Nominees should have significant experience and direct responsibilities related to operational cross-border payments aspects, product development, business models, standards, interoperability technologies and/or policy issues. They must be able to commit sufficient time and resources from within their organisation to support the work of the taskforce until at least the end of 2026. Current members who are interested in continuing to participate in the PIE taskforce are also invited to respond to this call for interest. The renewed PIE taskforce is expected to have between 30 and 40 members, drawn from a wide variety of jurisdictions and regions and comprising various private-sector institutional types and business models. The taskforce will meet virtually and in hybrid format, at least quarterly. A limited number of public sector representatives will continue to attend as observers. The renewed membership will come into effect at the beginning of 2025. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eDGaDc7U Expressions of interest to participate in the taskforce or inquiries should be emailed to cpmi@bis.org with "PIE taskforce nomination" in the subject line by 20 January 2025. The expression of interest should include the name of the nominee, the job title, a brief CV as well as short description of the firm or organisation.

Examining the technical features of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) is crucial as central banks progress in their exploration of this new digital payment infrastructure. The design choice should align with clear policy objectives of each jurisdiction, depending on the local context and market requirements. A new report by BIS member central banks in the Americas discusses four main processes in a retail CBDC architecture: (i) enrolling new users, (ii) creating CBDC, (iii) destroying CBDC and (iv) intra-ledger transfers. The report by the BIS Consultative Group on Innovation and the Digital Economy aims to advance the work on the design, issuance and adoption of CBDC and to share insights from a group of experts in North and South America. https://lnkd.in/ejEwmQ-W #CBDC #FinTech

Central banks operating under inflation targeting or similar regimes have conducted policy in a targeted fashion by responding more strongly to demand- than to supply-driven inflation. Read more here: https://bit.ly/41t5jOJ #BISQuarterly #MonetaryPolicy #TargetedTaylorRules #Inflation