Central Banks Live: Speeches, Interviews, and Testimony

Bowman, Challenges to the Community Banking Model

Speech At the 18th Annual Community Bankers Symposium, Community Banking: Navigating a Changing Landscape, Chicago, Illinois

Meeting of 11-12 September 2024

Jefferson, A History of the Fed's Discount Window: 1913–2000

Speech At Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina

Frank Elderson: Interview with Delo

Piero Cipollone: Towards a digital capital markets union

Cross-checking − speech by Huw Pill

Given at the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales annual conference ‘Building an Economy Fit for the Future’, London

Isabel Schnabel: Escaping stagnation: towards a stronger euro area

Innovation in Digital Assets in the Financial System and The Bank − by Sasha Mills

Given at Digital Assets Week

Luis de Guindos: Bridging the gap: reviving the euro area’s productivity growth through innovation, investment and integration

Luis de Guindos: Expectations surveys, central banks and the economy

Christine Lagarde: Hearing of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament

Decisions taken by the Governing Council of the ECB (in addition to decisions setting interest rates)

ECB Consumer Expectations Survey results – August 2024

Isabel Schnabel: The ECB’s monetary policy: towards price stability

Christine Lagarde: Technology as a new frontier for macroprudential policy

Bowman, Recent Views on Monetary Policy and the Economic Outlook

Speech At the Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America Board of Directors Workshop, Dallas, Texas

Kugler, How We Got Here: A Perspective on Inflation and the Labor Market

Speech At the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Who’s buying? The outlook for consumption in a rate cutting cycle − speech by Megan Greene

Given at The North East Chambers of Commerce, Newcastle

Regulatory Impact Statement: Biosecurity Act Amendment Bill

Legislation: Biosecurity Act 1993Ministerial portfolio: BiosecurityDocument on Ministry for Primary Industries website at September 2024: Regulatory Impact Statement: Biosecurity Act Amendment BillAssessment: RIS adequacy assessed by authoring agency.

Annex to Regulatory Impact Statement: Young serious offender declaration and military-style academies

Legislation: Oranga Tamariki Act 1989Ministerial portfolio: ChildrenDocument on Oranga Tamariki-Ministry for Children website at September 2024: Annex to Regulatory Impact Statement: Young serious offender declaration and military-style academies (links to PDF)Assessment: RIS adequacy assessed by authoring agency.

Policy spillovers when external shocks persist and domestic activity diverges - speech by Catherine L. Mann

Given at the Central Bank Research Association, National Bank of Poland and Bank of Lithuania 5th biennial conference ‘Macroeconomic adjustments after large global shocks’ in Vilnius, Lithuania

Regulatory Impact Statement: 2024 update to New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme limits and price control settings for units

Legislation: Climate Change Response Act 2002Ministerial portfolio: Climate ChangeDocument on Ministry for the Environment website at September 2024: Regulatory Impact Statement: 2024 update to New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme limits and price control settings for units (links to PDF)Assessment: RIS adequacy assessed by authoring agency.

Stage 2 Cost Recovery Impact Statement: Immigration Fee and Levy Review

Legislation: Immigration Act 2009Ministerial portfolio: ImmigrationDocument on Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment website at September 2024: Stage 2 Cost Recovery Impact Statement: Immigration Fee and Levy Review (links to PDF)Assessment: RIS adequacy assessed by authoring agency.

Regulatory Impact Statement: Proposals for regulations for natural hazard information in land information memoranda

Legislation: Local Government Official Information and Meetings ActMinisterial portfolio: Local GovernmentDocument on Department of Internal Affairs website at September 2024: Regulatory Impact Statement: Proposals for regulations for natural hazard information in land information memoranda (links to PDF)Assessment: RIS adequacy assessed by authoring agency.

A balanced approach to finishing Basel 3.1 in the UK − speech by Phil Evans

Given at UK Finance

Reflecting on recent times – speech by Andrew Bailey

Given at The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas 2024 Economic Symposium, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Late call − speech by Nathanaël Benjamin

Given at Linklaters, hosted by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association

Transformation and conjuncture − remarks by Huw Pill

Asia House, London

A multi-tool for cross-border payments: the power of Legal Entity Identifiers − speech by Victoria Cleland

Given at the FSB-GLEIF-ROC Global LEI conference

A data revolution: Built together, for everyone - speech by James Benford

Given at the FCA Data innovation for Future of Regulation (DiFoR) conference

The importance of central bank reserves by Andrew Bailey

Lecture in honour of Charles Goodhart, London School of Economics

Balancing the productivity opportunities of financial technology and AI against the potential risks − speech by Randall S. Kroszner

Given at City Week 2024

Cost of capital and UK business investment: Measurement challenges and research opportunities - slides by Catherine L. Mann

Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence Annual Conference at Alliance Manchester Business School

Monsters in the deep? − speech by Jonathan Hall

Given at University of Exeter Business School

Climate change, the macroeconomy and monetary policy - slides by James Talbot

Annual Dow Lecture given at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research

2024-04-08 - Thomas Jordan: Towards the future monetary system

Central bank money and commercial bank money complement each other in the current monetary system. Central bank money comprises sight deposits of banks held at the central bank and banknotes, whereas commercial bank money comprises client deposits at banks. Payments between banks are settled in central bank money, thereby anchoring the value of commercial bank money. It is essential for a central bank to maintain this anchor role of central bank money in the monetary system, irrespective of future technological innovations. Distributed ledger technology and the tokenisation of assets promise to improve financial market infrastructures. For the SNB, this raises the question: How can transactions with tokenised assets be settled in central bank money? As part of a pilot known as Project Helvetia III, the SNB is issuing tokenised Swiss franc central bank money to financial institutions (wholesale central bank digital currency, or wholesale CBDC). The pilot is unique in making wholesale CBDC available for settling commercial transactions on the same third-party platform where the tokenised assets are held. The pilot transactions conducted so far have been successful, but important questions remain. Technological change also affects retail payments by individuals and businesses. The SNB has upgraded its payment system, so that retail payments can now be settled between bank accounts within seconds and around the clock. With the ongoing improvement of the payment system, the SNB currently sees no need in Switzerland for digital central bank money for the general public.

2024-04-18 - Antoine Martin / Thomas Moser: The implementation and transmission of the SNB's monetary policy during the recent tightening cycle

Since peaking at 3.5% in August 2022, inflation in Switzerland has fallen sharply and stood at 1.0% in March 2024. This speech discusses how the implementation and transmission of the Swiss National Bank's monetary policy contributed to this substantial decline in inflation. By implementing its policy rate effectively in the secured short-term Swiss franc money market and by ensuring broad transmission to all relevant financial market interest rates and Swiss franc exchange rates, the SNB was able to rapidly dampen inflation in Switzerland. As a complement to its interest rate policy, the SNB sold foreign exchange to counter inflationary pressures from abroad. While interest rate policy is the SNB's main lever for influencing monetary conditions, in a small open economy such as Switzerland, FX intervention has proved to be an effective additional instrument for creating monetary conditions that ensure price stability.

2024-04-26 - Thomas Jordan: Price stability thanks to forward-looking monetary policy

In recent years, the Swiss National Bank has had to ensure price stability in very different situations. It has succeeded in doing so by focusing on its mandate and through its monetary policy strategy. The years before the coronavirus pandemic were characterised by low inflation. The outbreak of the pandemic triggered a serious downturn in the global economy, and the Swiss franc as a safe haven once more came under strong appreciation pressure. In this phase, the SNB fulfilled its mandate by using negative interest and extensive purchases of foreign exchange to counter the threat of deflation. After years when it had been exceptionally low, inflation suddenly returned with all its might across the world as the pandemic subsided. Supply that had been reduced by containment measures and disrupted supply chains met with demand heightened by catch-up effects. The war in Ukraine also saw energy prices shoot up, giving further impetus to inflation. The SNB tightened its monetary policy early by international comparison. Already in the second half of 2021, it deliberately allowed the Swiss franc to appreciate by being restrained in its purchases of foreign currency. After the first quarter of 2022, the SNB refrained from foreign currency purchases, and from the middle of the year tightened its monetary policy both by raising the SNB policy rate in several steps and by selling foreign currency. Thanks also to the early monetary policy tightening, inflation in Switzerland was at all times significantly lower than in many other countries, and has been back in the range consistent with price stability since mid-2023. Without its forward-looking monetary policy, the SNB would have had to raise its policy rate much more strongly at a later stage, with potentially negative consequences for the economy and the labour market. The successful fight against inflation also allowed the SNB to ease its monetary policy in March 2024, which at the same time supported economic activity. Although its approach has proven its worth in a wide variety of situations, the SNB will always critically examine its own assessments, and will endeavour to identify changes in conditions as early as possible and analyse their impact. It is thus well equipped to continue ensuring price stability in Switzerland in the future.

2024-05-30 - Thomas Jordan: The natural rate of interest (r*) as a reference point for monetary policy - a practitioner's view

Over the past years, the natural rate of interest (r*) - defined as the real interest rate consistent with stable inflation in an economy operating at full capacity in the medium term - has become an important reference point for monetary policy. The difference between the real interest rate and r* gives a measure of a central bank's monetary policy stance. Monetary policy is restrictive if the real interest rate is above r* and it is expansionary if it is below r*. Therefore, evaluating where the real interest rate is relative to r* helps to structure discussions about monetary policy options.  However, r* is unobserved and has to be estimated from the data. These estimates are subject to considerable uncertainty, which complicates their use in the monetary policy process. Nevertheless, neglecting r* estimates in practical monetary policy considerations would be a mistake. Given the uncertainty surrounding r* estimates, it is an important task of our economists to form a robust view on r*. They derive this view from a portfolio of different models and cross-check the results against a broader set of indicators to arrive at a measure of r* that is useful for monetary policymaking. This measure plays an important role in our monetary policy decisions. First, it is an important element in assessing monetary conditions. However, other factors - such as real exchange rates - also play an important part in this assessment at the SNB. Second, the deviation of the real interest rate from r* is essential for our inflation forecast and thus for gauging medium-term inflationary pressure.  Uncertainty surrounding r* estimates can be narrowed down to some extent, but it cannot be eliminated. Our risk management approach to monetary policymaking acknowledges the uncertainty and prescribes that policy decisions be appropriate for a range of scenarios. Ultimately, our decisions are guided by our mandate of ensuring price stability.

2024-09-26 - Thomas Jordan / Martin Schlegel / Antoine Martin: Introductory remarks, news conference