The new BIS strategy - bringing the Americas and Basel closer together

01 October 2019

Agustín Carstens, General Manager of the BIS provides an overview of the Innovation BIS 2025 strategy and gives concrete examples of how it can benefit stakeholders in the Americas, including supervisory authorities in the region, which are well represented today.

Last but not least, he elaborates on the enhanced role of the Financial Stability Institute (FSI) as part of the new BIS strategy.

Late last year BIS launched the Bank for International Settlements' medium-term strategic plan, called Innovation BIS 2025. The new strategy requires changes in the way BIS works and in the issues BIS covers in order to reflect the priorities that are front and centre in the agenda of financial authorities around the world, including those derived from the way innovation and technology are reshaping the financial landscape. At the same time, the new strategy reaffirms BIS’s core mission, which is to provide the highest-quality, cutting-edge knowledge and financial services to central banks, as well as to promote cooperation and collaboration for the common good of a well functioning global financial system.

A new strategy: Innovation BIS 2025 – Mr Carstens says: “specifically, the new strategy means the following changes in our three main areas of activity:

• Our economic analysis and research will broaden in focus to include new themes and respond to the current and foreseeable challenges facing the central bank community and the financial services industry. As such, our work will focus on the implications of technological innovation for central banks, the financial system and the economy at large; the adjustments in monetary policy frameworks in advanced and emerging market economies; and the evaluation of post-crisis financial reforms.
• As a global forum for cooperation among central banks and other financial authorities, we will continue our strong support for the Basel Process, develop new channels of collaboration and knowledge-sharing and enhance our capacity-building efforts.
• Our role as the "bank for central banks" requires our banking business to continue to excel, calling for investment in next-generation technologies. We aim to enlarge our range of financial products and services, expand our global presence and upgrade our IT environment to more effectively support our activities.”

Innovation BIS 2025 and the Americas – Mr Carstens provides some concrete examples of how the new BIS strategy can benefit our stakeholders in the Americas:

• Representative Office for the Americas - In the context of Innovation BIS 2025, BIS decided to increase the strategic importance of this office and to upgrade the position of Chief Representative to be part of overall BIS Senior Management. As part of that growing strategic importance, BIS is also establishing a dealing room in the Representative Office to better serve its central bank customers in the region.
• BIS Innovation Hub - The role of the Innovation Hub will be to develop in-depth insights into critical trends in technology affecting central banking; to develop public goods in the technology space to improve the functioning of the global financial system; and to serve as a focal point for a network of central bank innovation experts.
• BIS Cyber Resilience Coordination Centre (CRCC) - the overall objective of the CRCC will be to provide a structured and careful approach to knowledge-sharing and collaboration amongst central banks in the area of cyber resilience.

Innovation BIS 2025 and FSI work - the strategy highlights the FSI's role in supporting the implementation of the post-crisis regulatory reforms and in supporting capacity-building of financial authorities more generally.

Full speech on BIS

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