Central Banking’s 11th Annual Industry Awards Winners

For immediate release: 08:00, March 12, 2024

Central Banking is pleased to announce the first tranche of winners of the Central Banking Awards 2024, its 11th annual industry awards recognising excellence in the central banking community.

Central Bank of the Year: Central Bank of Brazil
Reserve Manager: National Bank of Denmark
Risk Manager: Reserve Bank of India
Asset Manager: Amundi
Global Markets: JP Morgan
Risk Management Services: SQL Power

Drawing on nearly 35 years of independent and informed reporting, analysis, benchmarking and comment, the Central Banking Awards were judged by a panel made up of members of the Central Banking Editorial Team and Editorial Advisory Board.

A brief description follows, detailing the rationale for giving the awards as well as reaction comments from Roberto Campos Neto, Signe Krogstrup, Shaktikanta Das, Jean-Jacques Barbéris, Dan Zelikow and Sam Selim.

Central Bank of the Year: Central Bank of Brazil

Roberto Campos Neto, Governor, Central Bank of Brazil, said:

“It is an honour to receive this important recognition from Central Banking. This award is an acknowledgement of the excellence of our technical staff, whose work has contributed to the stability of our currency’s purchasing power and the soundness and efficiency of the financial system.

“Following the great shocks that have affected the global economy in recent years, the BCB acted proactively, starting the tightening cycle early, in March 2021. This strategy reinforced the autonomy of the BCB and has yielded positive results to bring inflation down with lower output cost. After these developments, the BCB initiated the loosening cycle in August 2023, but we continue to work attentively to consolidate the disinflationary process.

“At the same time, the BCB has been pursuing a comprehensive agenda of financial innovation, which has been responsible for the financial inclusion of millions of people in Brazil. Initiatives such as Pix, Open Finance, the internationalisation of the currency and the development of Drex, our CBDC, bring efficiency and modernisation to the financial system. We have also implemented a sustainability agenda as demanded by society. At the BCB, we will keep striving to ensure that the financial system of the future is more efficient, competitive, sustainable and inclusive.”

Christopher Jeffery, Chairman of the Central Banking Awards Committee and Editor-in-chief of Central Banking, said:

“The Central Bank of Brazil has reinforced its legal autonomy by acting to tackle inflation early on, so reducing the overall cost to the Brazilian economy. The central bank resisted strong calls to cut rates prematurely. But, when it determined the economic conditions were appropriate, it did not hesitate to cut its policy rate. In the meantime, the Brazilian central bank has developed its capacity across multiple areas, including a formidable track record in harnessing technology to improve financial inclusion.”

Reserve Manager: National Bank of Denmark

The judges noted how the National Bank of Denmark has implemented a comprehensive set of changes to the way it manages its foreign exchange reserves, including adopting a new strategic asset allocation to stabilise income over the long term, reinforcing its decision-making process to clarify management and implementation roles and joining a central clearing counterparty to improve liquidity management.

Signe Krogstrup, Governor, National Bank of Denmark, said:

“I am proud that Danmarks Nationalbank is named the winner of the Reserve Manager of the Year. Our FX reserve plays a central role in the implementation of monetary policy in Denmark. It is therefore critically important to us that our reserve management practices are prudent and always live up to best practices. I see this distinction as a confirmation and acknowledgement of the achievements and the hard work our reserve management team has carried out over the last year to further strengthen our approach to reserve management. This is the second time we have won this distinction, which underlines that we have been able to further improve our setup based on an already strong foundation.”

Christopher Jeffery, Chairman of the Central Banking Awards Committee and Editor-in-chief of Central Banking, said:

”The Danish central bank has made significant efforts to further improve its already well-run reserves unit. This includes updating its SAA, sharpening decision-making and improving liquidity management.”

Risk Manager: Reserve Bank of India

The judges noted how the new enterprise risk management framework, currently being rolled out across the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has significantly improved the risk culture of the central bank. This was made possible due to a committed tone of sound risk management principles being set from the very top.

Shaktikanta Das, Governor, Reserve Bank of India, said:

“We at the Reserve Bank of India are honoured to receive Central Banking’s ‘Risk Manager of the Year’ award. Strengthening internal risk governance and fostering of organisational risk culture is an arduous journey, and I am glad that the progress made by us is being recognised. A robust internal risk architecture has been our institutional priority and the team at the Reserve Bank has worked tirelessly to put all the elements in place, with specific emphasis on organisational risk culture and awareness. Thanks to the collective efforts of all our employees, we have been able to usher in a perceptible cultural change within the organisation, towards better understanding, management and mitigation of risks. Looking ahead, we are committed to moving further on this path and ensuring that the internal risk function evolves in line with the needs of a central bank in today’s dynamic world.”

Christopher Jeffery, Chairman of the Central Banking Awards Committee and Editor-in-chief of Central Banking, said:

“The team at the RBI has worked tirelessly to improve internal risk architecture – no easy task at such a large central bank. Its adoption of ‘enterprise-wide risk management 2.0’ looks set to shape the RBI’s risk management for the next 10 years.”

Asset Manager: Amundi

Amundi has expanded its client base among reserve managers during the past year or so, notably drawing on its expertise in environmental, social and governance investing, mortgage-backed securities, eurozone markets and training. These elements came to play when the firm secured a new mandate with the Central Bank of Colombia for the first time.

Jean-Jacques Barbéris, Head of Institutional and Corporate Clients Division & ESG, Amundi, said:

“We are honoured to receive the Central Banking Asset Manager of the Year award. We are proud our dedication and commitment to delivering value to our central banking clients has been recognised, also underscoring the important role that central banks continue to play in our strategic relationships with asset owners. We will continue to act as a trusted partner to clients, as we develop new solutions for them to meet their increasingly complex needs.”

Christopher Jeffery, Chairman of the Central Banking Awards Committee and Editor-in-chief of Central Banking, said:

“Amundi has harnessed its expertise in ESG, MBS and continental Europe to gain new clients in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.”

Global Markets: JP Morgan

During the past year, JP Morgan’s dedicated team of public sector bankers has helped more than half of the world’s central banks with securities trading activities, and 83 central banks with FX interventions, currency management and FX hedging operations amid changing market conditions. Meanwhile, some 75 central banks parked $50 billion of deposits in 24 currencies at the US bank. JP Morgan also played an important role in assisting 20 central banks in managing their gold activities and partnered with 23 central banks with distributed ledger technology.

Dan Zelikow, Vice-Chairman, Public Sector, JP Morgan, said:

“Banking the public sector as clients is a core strength of JP Morgan, and it has been for almost 200 years. Our public sector bankers stay abreast of both financial and policy developments around the world, and they bring that expertise – and cross-country experience – to benefit the clients they serve.”

Christopher Jeffery, Chairman of the Central Banking Awards Committee and Editor-in-chief of Central Banking, said:

“JP Morgan really stood out during the past year for putting forward its full suite of capabilities to assist central banks around the world during a period characterised by fluctuating sentiment in financial markets.”

Risk Management Services: SQL Power

SQL Power’s solution allows central bank clients to automate every aspect of banking supervision conveniently and cost-effectively, within a comprehensive and integrated platform.

Sam Selim, President & Chief Innovation Officer, SQL Power Group, said:

“We are delighted and extremely honoured to be chosen as the winner of Central Banking’s Risk Management Services award. SQL Power has been at the forefront of SupTech Innovation for the past 15 years, deploying our highly configurable end-to-end SupTech platform around the globe. This recognition is a testament that there is more to risk management than simple data collection – our platform covers the entire central banks’ customer journey, from licensing to data collection to risk assessment to onsite examination, offsite monitoring and investigations – all the while providing real-time analytics within 15 seconds of any submission."

“Our most recent deployment at the Bank of Namibia Digitally Transformed every aspect of the Bank’s Risk-based Supervision while providing early warning analytics at every stage of their supervisory process. The project was a tremendous success implementing our SupTech solution tailored to the Bank's specific Forms, Business Processes and Reporting needs (during COVID) in Under 12 months."

“Receiving this prestigious award reaffirms SQL Power’s unique value to our central banking clients and reinforces our firm’s commitment to always staying at the forefront of SupTech innovations.”

Christopher Jeffery, Chairman of the Central Banking Awards Committee and Editor-in-chief of Central Banking, said,

“SQL Power’s work with Bank of Namibia, in particular, stood out for digitally transforming the southern African central bank’s entire risk-based supervision, while also supporting early-warning analytics.”

Notes to Editors

1. Media copies of the citing articles are also available. Christopher Jeffery at: [email protected] or + 44 (0) 20 7316 9509; or Daniel Hinge at: [email protected] or + 44 (0) 20 7316 9054.
2. Please click the following links to view the Central Banking Awards 2023, Central Banking Awards 2022, Central Banking Awards 2021, Central Banking Awards 2020, Central Banking Awards 2019, Central Banking Awards 2018, Central Banking Awards 2017, Central Banking Awards 2016, Central Banking Awards 2015 and Central Banking Awards 2014.
3. Since its foundation in 1990, Central Banking journal has been the only regular, independent publication for and about central banks. It is supported by an Editorial Advisory Board that includes the former governors of many of the world’s leading central banks, as well as Nobel Prize-winning economists.
4. Central Banking is read by subscribers in more than 140 countries.
5. Central Banking operates the Central Banking Institute, a membership club for central banks comprising Benchmarking, Insight and Professional Development.

Follow all Central Banking’s award updates online here.