The OMFIF Podcast

Fiscal policies to tackle climate catastrophe in Asia Pacific

The physical risks of climate change are particularly high for Asia Pacific. The region is most susceptible to natural disasters, such as hurricanes, droughts and wildfires, which will become more frequent and severe. As the most populous and fastest growing region in recent decades, Asia Pacific has unsurprisingly become the largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Fiscal policy plays a critical role in responding to climate change. Progress can be achieved by well-designed tax policies that raise the price of carbon, together with non-tax instruments such as emission trading systems or regulations. Climate adaption and mitigation requires an increase in government spending, accommodated under the fiscal framework of a country. Further, fiscal policy can facilitate the transition to a greener, low-carbon economy by investing in climate-smart infrastructure such as renewable power generation and supporting research and development in climate-smart technologies. 

Register here for the OMFIF-SPI symposium, 'Revolutionising finance for net zero'. 

Panellists:
Masahiro Nozaki, Deputy Division Chief, IMF Asia-Pacific Department
Ian Parry, Principal Environmental Fiscal Policy Expert, IMF
Satoru Yamadera, Advisor, Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department, ADB
John Nasir, Head of Economics, APAC, IFC

This podcast is taken from a recording of a live event. Recorded on 18/08/21. 

Watch the event.

In focus: Developments in digital payments

David Creer, global distributed ledger technology and crypto lead at the GFT Group, and Peter Clifford, director of central bank digital currencies and payments at Digital Asset, join Philip Middleton, chair of OMFIF’s Digital Monetary Institute, to discuss developments in digital payments. They delve into the issue of the efficiency of cross-border payments, transaction infrastructure in cross-border currency swaps, decentralised networks and privacy issues. 

Modernising corporate and governmental ESG credentials

The response to Covid-19 has energised efforts for not just green policy changes but also a focus on social inclusion in corporate and governmental programmes. Gill Meller, the legal and governance director for the majority state-owned MTR Corporation, and Michael Camerlengo, who leads KPMG’s government practice in the Asia Pacific region and the infrastructure sector in Hong Kong, joins OMFIF’s Ellie Groves. They discuss the importance of good governance and the challenges and rewards of implementing an environmental, social and governance investment framework. Key questions around this topic include how corporates can integrate ESG in their core ethos, how governments can support modernisation efforts and what the future holds for ESG investing in Asia Pacific.

To register for the OMFIF-SPI symposium mentioned in this podcast, visit our website here. 

In focus: SPI symposium

OMFIF’s Emma McGarthy and Natalia Ospina discuss the forthcoming Sustainable Policy Institute symposium, ‘Revolutionising finance for net zero’, taking place on 29-30 September. The event will bring together a network of key policy-makers, regulators, public and private sector investors and ESG experts for a two-day event to push the boundaries of the discussion on the role of monetary policy, regulation and disclosure as well as addressing key practical challenges in driving greener financial markets to achieve net zero. The symposium will provide crucial insights into COP26 preparations, its results and consequent actions. It will allow participants to have their voice heard and influence such an important policy area at this critical point of time and move the industry beyond words into action.

Hear from headline speakers from over 30 financial institutions, including Banque de France, Deutsche Bundesbank, International Monetary Fund, The World Bank Group, Banco Central do Brasil, Bank of England, Riksbank, European Platform on Sustainable Finance, BNY Mellon, National Bank of Cambodia and World Wide Fund for Nature.

Register here.

Sovereign debt sustainability after Covid-19

Ludger Schuknecht, vice-president and corporate secretary of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and Dennis Shen, Dennis Shen, a director of sovereign ratings at Scope Ratings, join John Orchard, chief executive officer of OMFIF, to discuss sovereign debt sustainability in both developed and developing economies. Their conversation focuses on the fiscal response to Covid-19, the debt ratio problem and its potential solution, the readiness of some countries to end their quantitative easing programmes and the best measures to keep in place to maintain fiscal sustainability.

 

Requirements for a fully functional CBDC

Charles Kerrigan, partner at CMS Law, and Seokgu Yun, founder and chief executive officer of Sovereign Wallet Network, join John Orchard, CEO of OMFIF, to discuss privacy concerns associated with central bank digital currencies, how policy-makers can address these and the challenges of launching a CDBC. As well as this, they share their perspectives about the underlying technology and set of features necessary for programmable money, an idea gaining momentum but which is often misunderstood. They also touch on the most significant trade-offs between design choices and briefly discuss how to build a CBDC that can adapt to future needs.

How the Bank of Korea got through Covid-19

Seok Jun Yang, director general for reserves management at the Bank of Korea, speaks to OMFIF’s Pierre Ortlieb on macro and market developments over the course of the Covid-19 shock. They discuss how the Bank of Korea managed its reserves in response to the market turmoil of spring 2020, the global fiscal and monetary policy response to the pandemic and how to strengthen the global financial safety net for future crises.

Cryptoassets: Risks, opportunities and valuation

With the financial stress of Covid-19 and inflation fears, institutional investors are exploring cryptocurrencies and tokenised assets as alternative investments. However, as we witness the beginning of a major portfolio diversification shift, uncertainty remains regarding risk, taxonomy and valuation surrounding these new asset classes. In partnership with Kroll, OMFIF DMI hosts this virtual panel on the cryptoasset landscape. The panel discusses market trends and demand, types of cryptoassets, technical ways of valuing cryptoassets, risk, and adoption.

Panellists:
Dan Berkovitz, Commissioner, Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Ken Joseph, Managing Director, Kroll, former Senior Officer, Securities and Exchange Commission
David Larsen, Managing Director, Alternative Asset Advisory, Duff & Phelps, A Kroll Business
Nicole Sandler, Head of Digital Policy, Barclays

This podcast is taken from a recording of a live event. Recorded on 20/07/2021. 

Watch the event.

Ahead of the ECB

Athanasios Orphanides, professor of the practice of global economics and management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, joins Ellie Groves to discuss the European Central Bank’s strategy review and its potential consequences for the July monetary policy announcement. Orphanides, who served as governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus between 2007-12 and member of the Governing Council of the ECB, offers his thoughts on how the central bank will have to provide further accommodation in asset purchases to reach the 2% inflation target and ensure credibility. Discussing European inflation forecasts and unanswered structural questions from the strategy review, he sets out ways in which the ECB can step up to the challenge of the post-pandemic recovery.

ECB and the future of monetary policy

Following the Covid-19 crisis the European Central Bank expanded their policies. As the recovery phase of the pandemic plays out, Luis de Guindos, vice president of the European Central Bank, joins OMFIF to discuss the European economic situation, current status of the ECB’s monetary policy strategy review and challenges for monetary policy in the current environment.

Speaker:
Luis de Guindos, Vice-President, European Central Bank

This podcast is taken from a recording of a live event. Recorded on 12/07/2021. 

Watch the full event.