Invested: The OMFIF Podcast

Amid persistent inflation, heightened recession risks and prolonged geopolitical tensions, central bank reserve managers find themselves confronting yet another difficult year. This challenging macroenvironment is impacting their investment strategies and, for some, it is raising concerns about the adequacy of their reserves. Join Nikhil Sanghani, managing director of research, and Taylor Pearce, senior economist at OMFIF, as they discuss some of the key findings from the 10th Global Public Investor report: https://www.omfif.org/gpi2023/.

Mike Kanovitz, chief executive officer of Jurat Blockchains, joins Lewis McLellan, editor of the Digital Monetary Institute, to discuss the challenges of making court orders enforceable on the blockchain. Traditional finance has intermediaries that can implement the decisions of courts, such as freezing assets and reversing transactions. But in a decentralised context, this is more challenging. Kanovitz explains the role of Jurat's technology in creating a means for the law to be enforced in decentralised circumstances.

How are central bank reserve managers navigating a tumultuous global economy? Are they continuing to flee to safety? Or are they shifting toward or away from the dollar? Has their approach to Chinese assets changed on account of geopolitical conflict? And, amid such uncertainty, have central bank reserve managers been able to continue to develop their environmental, social and governance initiatives?

In this podcast, Taylor Pearce and Julian Jacobs, senior economists at OMFIF, present a preview of the 2023 Global Public Investor report: our flagship study of central bank reserve managers. The report offers an insight into central bank behaviour, decision-making and beliefs about the future.

The report will be launched on 27 June. Find out more here.

As the world's eyes turn towards Türkiye's pivotal run-off election on 28 May, the implications reach far beyond its democracy and regional standing. The nation's economy, weathered by skyrocketing inflation rates and a plunging currency value, stands at a critical juncture.

In this podcast, Erich Arispe Morales, senior director of sovereigns at Fitch Ratings, speaks with Taylor Pearce, senior economist at OMFIF. They delve into the intricate interplay between this Sunday's run-off election and the economic ramifications awaiting Türkiye.

Crypto businesses have been crying out for regulatory clarity for years. At last, regulators around the world are beginning to deliver. Andrew Whitworth, Ripple’s policy director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, joined Lewis McLellan, editor of OMFIF’s Digital Monetary Institute, to discuss the approaches to the crypto market that regulators are taking, where consensus is emerging and the gaps that remain to be filled.

The plumbing of financial markets could soon be overhauled. Distributed ledger technology offers a new way of settling financial transactions. Lewis McLellan, editor of OMFIF’s Digital Monetary Institute, is joined by three experts on the cutting edge of this technology’s application to capital markets: John O’Neill, global head of digital assets strategy at HSBC, Mathew McDermott, global head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs, and Bertrand de Mazières, director general finance at the European Investment Bank, the most prolific issuer of blockchain bonds. The panel discusses the remarkable progress that blockchain bond technology has made in recent years, as well as the challenges remaining in implementation.

Nature-positive finance is rising on investors’ agendas, yet uncertainty of how to scale up nature-positive flows remains. To help drive nature-based capital, Guernsey Financial Services Commission has developed a natural capital fund. William Mason, director general and Alison Gavey, director of Authorisations and Innovation Division at GFSC, join Emma McGarthy, head of OMFIF’s Sustainable Policy Institute to discuss criteria, targets and the commercial orientation of the fund, and what issuers and investors need to consider when identifying investable nature-based projects

Research is well underway for the 10^th edition of OMFIF’s Global Public Investor – our flagship publication which explores the investment strategies of central bank reserves managers. Ellie Groves, Managing Director of OMFIF’s Economic and Monetary Policy Institute, speaks to Nikhil Sanghani, OMFIF’s Managing Director of Research, on:

• The aims of the GPI
• Key findings from previous reports
• A sneak peak of results from the 2023 survey, based on responses from over 50 central banks at the time of recording.

The full results will be revealed at the launch on 27 June. Find out more here: https://www.omfif.org/global-public-investor/

The rapid pace of technological change is matched by the ever-evolving risks to financial stability and the global economy, as presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the acceleration of climate change and the volatility of digital financial assets. It is within this environment that central banks need to harness technology to capture, handle, integrate and use new data effectively.

In this podcast, we explore key findings of an upcoming report assessing the challenges and opportunities facing central banks in the digital age. Specifically, our experts will dive into the operating models, technological platforms and integrated data strategies central banks are pursuing to thrive in a digital age.

Host: Lewis McLellan, Editor, Digital Monetary Institute, OMFIF

Guest: Oliver Berger, Head of Middle East & North Africa, State Street Corporation

• The management of efficient and organic data governance
• How are central banks approaching data transformation?
• What challenges do they face when ingesting, aggregating and analysing key economic and investment data from across their key functions?
• Which technologies or enterprise-wide solutions could be used to help mitigate these challenges?
• Follow-up question on cloud migration: How do central banks manage data sovereignty laws when considering migrating data to the cloud?
• The intersection of Process, People and Technology (PPT) from end to end

Gregory Smith, emerging markets fund manager at M&G Investments, speaks to Burhan Khadbai, head of content at OMFIF’s Sovereign Debt Institute, about the refinancing risks that African sovereigns are facing with a wall of bonds set to mature over the next few years.

Smith talks about where the risks are most concentrated and the difficulty many African sovereigns with low credit ratings will face in accessing the markets. He also talks about the debt restructuring talks in Ghana and Zambia and the role of debt-for-nature swaps as a way of reducing high debt burdens and boosting investment in environmental conservation.

Recorded on 17/03/23