The OMFIF Podcast

Quantitative Tightening: how fast, how far?

OMFIF Chief Economist Neil Williams speaks with Economist Taylor Pearce in a lightning-round podcast on quantitative easing. They discuss the situation regarding quantitative easing, why central banks are so slow to wind down their balance sheets and what the benefits of running QT would be. For more on this theme, check out Williams’ commentary ‘Central banks can tighten by doing nothing’.

Next Generation EU with Siegfried Ruhl: one year later

The €800bn Next Generation EU fund – set up to help finance Europe’s recovery from the economic damage of the Covid-19 pandemic – has been operating since last June. How is its lending schedule and debt management office-like funding programme going? How has its market-changing green bond programme progressed? Who is buying its bonds? How will it operate after 2026, when its initial mandate is complete? How does it compare to other European agency and sovereign borrowers? Might it help finance the eventual reconstruction of Ukraine? Siegfried Ruhl, Hors Classe Advisor at the European Commission's budget department, speaks to OMFIF CEO John Orchard ahead of the conference on the NGEU in Singapore.

Financial stability outlook: global and European perspectives

Just as economies and financial markets around the world were beginning to recover from the unprecedented Covid-19 shocks, fallout from the war in Ukraine has heightened global financial risk once again. How have the post-2008 financial crisis stability frameworks fared in response to these crises? Pedro Duarte Neves, adviser for the board of directors, Banco de Portugal, and Bill Papadakis, investment strategist for Lombard Odier's macro team, speak to Taylor Pearce, OMFIF economist, about the various facets of financial stability for the euro area and globally, including the risks associated with corporate debt levels, sustainability imperatives and non-bank financial institutions.

What is blockchain good for?

Though blockchain is now a well-known term, the specific qualities that make it useful are still poorly understood. David Chan, CEO and co-founder of a distributed ledger technology-based programmable money platform called eCora, joins Lewis McLellan, editor of OMFIF’s Digital Monetary Institute. They discuss the unique properties of modern blockchains and highlight the areas – like programmable digital currency for industry – where they are uniquely placed to deliver value.

Transforming international payments

Lewis McLellan, editor of OMFIF’s Digital Monetary Institute, joined Victoria Cumings, chief legal and regulatory officer at RTGS.global, at the DMI Symposium to discuss how the Financial Stability Board’s roadmap for enhancing cross-border payments is driving change in the payments ecosystem. They discussed public and private sector efforts to transform international payments and delved into how new thinking and approaches can contribute towards industry improvements.

’Walking the tightrope’: How China is balancing geopolitics and economics

Dennis Shen, macroeconomist and director of sovereign ratings at Scope Ratings, speaks with Taylor Pearce, economist at OMFIF, about China’s economic relations with the US and Europe in the global macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape. Shen discusses how China is balancing its political and economic interests in the face of western sanctions on Russia, assesses the future of the renminbi as a reserve currency and concludes with his outlook for China’s economy and future influence, including how China’s slowing growth may affect the country’s soft power objectives.

How can central banks innovate in the digital age?

Xiaochen Zhang is principal manager at Amazon Web Services. Prior to AWS, Xiaochen worked with many portfolio companies in launching new offers, entering into new markets and building transformative collaborative initiatives on central bank digital currencies, sustainable development and blockchain. Xiaochen built strong collaborations with government agencies, multinational organisations and financial institutions through work with the World Bank, United Nations, Inter-America Development Bank, Astana International Finance Center, FinTech4Good and many other international platforms in the past 20 years.

Developing ESG talent in financial markets

Sherry Madera, senior vice president, public policy and government affairs at Mastercard and co-chair of the Future of Sustainable Data Alliance, Matthew Blake, head of financial and monetary system initiatives at the World Economic Forum, and Haleh Nazeri, platform curator, financial services, WEF, join Emma McGarthy, head of OMFIF’s Sustainable Policy Institute. They explore the need to drive environmental, social and governance talent development and acquisition in financial services and the skills required to meet net zero. They discuss how companies can fill the gaps identified in ESG talent and the tools, data strategies and policies required to create sustainability roles. 

View the World Economic Forum and Future of Sustainable Data Alliance Talent Development Tool here.

Download the report 'Future of Sustainable Data Alliance (FoSDA): towards consistent, comprehensive and coherent data' here. 

Regulating cryptoassets: balancing innovation and financial stability

On this podcast, Philip Middleton speaks to Ashley Alder on regulating cryptoassets. This clip was taken from our global DMI symposium which you can view here. Ashley Alder is the Chief Executive Officer of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). Ashley started his career as a lawyer in London in 1984. He came to Hong Kong in 1989 with the international law firm Herbert Smith, practicing corporate and business law. He was Executive Director of Corporate Finance at the SFC from 2001 to 2004, before returning to Herbert Smith, later as head of the firm’s Asia Region. He rejoined the SFC in 2011. Ashley was appointed by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong as a Justice of the Peace in 2014 and is a Fellow of The Hong Kong Institute of Bankers. He is currently the Vice Chairman of the Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and the Chairman of the IOSCO Asia Pacific Regional Committee. Ashley attained his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of London in 1982 and graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Master of Laws degree in 1983.

In conversation with Øystein Olsen, former governor of Norges Bank

Øystein Olsen, governor of Norges Bank for 11 years up to 28 February, speaks to David Marsh, OMFIF chairman, about the lessons he has learned over four decades in public service, including in helping to steer the world’s largest sovereign fund. Olsen, a veteran energy economist and formerly Norway’s statistics supremo, has become a member of the OMFIF advisory council. Norges Bank is responsible for managing the Government Pension Fund Global, with $1.3tn invested through Norges Bank Investment Management. In this podcast, Olsen, who handed over to Deputy Governor Ida Wolden Bache, speaks about his long-term role in developing the fund, its investment policies in supporting corporate governance and sustainability, Norway’s place in European energy, the future of oil and gas, and the 2020 controversy over the appointment of NBIM’s new chief executive.