BIS Debuts Innovation Hub To Help Central Banks Collaborate

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has announced the launch of a BIS Innovation Hub to enable central banks around the world to collaborate on financial technology solutions and innovation.

The Hub will identify and develop insights into technology trends that have a crucial impact on central banking, as well as create public goods that will improve the global financial system and serve as a focal point for central bank experts on innovation.

“The IT revolution knows no borders and therefore has repercussions in multiple locations simultaneously. The establishment of the BIS Innovation Hub will enable central banks to extend their existing collaboration with a view to identifying relevant trends in technology, supporting these developments where this is consistent with their mandate, and keeping abreast of regulatory requirements with the objective of safeguarding financial stability. There are significant economies of scale in such an endeavor, and the BIS is the ideal vehicle to realize them,” Jens Weidmann, chairman of the BIS Board of Directors, said in a press release.

“There is a new economy emerging driven by changes in technology, demographics and the environment. While the private sector is driving these innovations, their efforts will be more effective if the hard and soft infrastructure of the global financial system support this innovation, promote resilience and level the playing field on which to compete. Central banks have a major role to play. The BIS Innovation Hub will foster collaboration between central banks and, by extension, help the private sector to fully realize these major opportunities,” added Mark Carney, chair of the Economic Consultative Committee.

The Hubs will initially launch in Basel and Hong Kong, while a third Hub is set for Singapore. The Hubs will work closely with each locale’s central banks, including the Swiss National Bank, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and Monetary Authority of Singapore. Additional Centres across the Americas and Europe will be added during a second phase.

“I am pleased with the trust and the confidence that our membership has placed in the BIS and its staff to take on this important task. With the establishment of a network of central bank experts on technology and innovation, we will now intensify work on a set of projects that reflect the innovation priorities of the central banking community and which could be scaled up through international cooperation over a relatively short period of time,” said BIS General Manager Agustín Carstens.