|
Central Bank Modernisation
4-day intensive residential programme, 26 -30 March
2006
Venue: Cumberland Lodge, Windsor
Course chairman: John Mendzela
Director, Mendhurst
Associates
Series adviser: Charles Goodhart, CBE
Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics,
Financial Markets Group
Details of how to register
are here
CENTRAL BANK MODERNISATION
Central banks, their boards, governments and key stakeholders in many countries are questioning whether the governance and management structures which central banks have inherited remain appropriate. For many central banks, the answer is no. The result is a trend towards strategic review and “modernisation” aimed at ensuring that central banks continue to meet highest modern standards of effectiveness and efficiency.
Since central banks each perform a unique role in their national economy, this is no easy task. This seminar, by allowing participating central banks to benchmark their functions against those of their peers and pool precious experience, is designed to help. By showing how leading central banks have in fact tackled the challenges of modernisation, this course aims to provide a “roadmap” for central bank reform and renewal – whether it be upgrading governance or strategic planning, or managing internal or external reforms. The programme has been designed to be relevant to the full range of central banking environments by stressing both common core principles and key practical differences.
Interactive workshop sessions, led by central bank experts, will explore how governors, advisers and project teams can work together to develop strategic approaches to change. And, crucially, how these strategies can be implemented successfully.
Detailed case studies show how central banks have in fact tackled such daunting projects as: modernising policymaking processes, taking on new roles, reorganising, streamlining or outsourcing functions, and spurring national financial sectors to greater efficiency and competitiveness.
Each session of the seminar allows participating supervisors and central bankers an opportunity to share experiences and analysis from their home jurisdiction and to exchange views with their peers in an informal setting.
Since 1999, over 1,000 central bankers and supervisors have attended roundtable seminars hosted by Central Banking Publications Ltd, publishers of Central Banking journal and a new study on central bank reform, Central Bank Modernisation.
For more information about the programme, please take a few moments to look at the detailed course contents presented on the pages which follow.
I look forward to welcoming you to Windsor.
Yours sincerely,
William Clarke, PhD, CBE
Chairman, Central Banking Publications
Globalisation,
governance and new management practice
Tim Roberts and Caroline
Webb
McKinsey & Company
This session identifies some of
the key current external challenges facing central banks, and examines
how new management practices in leading parallel organisations can focus
and promote modernisation efforts. Because of their unique role, central
banks may often feel they have little in common with other industries
or organisations. But independence, required for policymaking, should
not lead to aloofness. Not least because central banks must adopt best
practices in many areas of their work such as risk management, information
technology or talent management, if they are to maintain effectiveness
in changing markets and retain the approval of their stakeholders. In
addition, leading central banks appreciate that external standards of
governance, ethics, efficiency, openness and stakeholder accountability
provide critical benchmarks for management.
Leadership, people, and culture
Peter
Nicholl
Board member (and former governor),
Central Bank of Bosnia & Herzegovina
Without cultural change, organisational
change is impossible. However, change can be painful, and some stakeholders
will suffer. To effect lasting change, senior management, up to the
level of the governor, must be engaged. In this session, Peter Nicholl
discusses the role of the governor and the board in changing organisational
culture, focussing in particular on the need for sound principles of
direction and management; the importance of the cultural, political
and economic background; and the ability to respond effectively to change.
The role of technology in central bank
transformation
Michael
Yorke
Executive Vice-President, Automation
Services, Federal Reserve Bank of New York (invited)
As more and more central bank staff
become “knowledge workers” and processes become every more
reliant on technology, the effective deployment of this technology becomes
increasingly critical. Few modernisation projects are without a technology
dimension, many are entirely dependent on new systems. Effective IT
governance is critical. This session examines how one of the world’s
largest central banks, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has approached
these issues, with particular emphasis on how IT governance can link
business lines with technology functions to deliver effective outcomes.
Key challenges in central bank modernisation
Workshop
This workshop builds on the experiences of participants
in their home institutions. Each delegate will talk briefly about the
key issues that are presenting them with challenges at their central
bank or regulatory agency. Through discussion, delegates will have an
opportunity to benefit from each other’s expertise and experience.
Janet Cosier
Adviser to the Governor, Bank of Canada
The journey towards institutional reform must begin with a strategic review of what roles and functions a central bank will need to perform in future. The Bank of Canada has overhauled its governance and strategic management in recent years as a result of just this kind of strategic review. This session looks at how in practice the Bank tackled this question. In particular the session will consider the practicalities of the review process and the use of a small planning team of senior management to put this into effect. The session will look at how the Bank’s governance and strategic management framework has continued to evolve and what useful lessons can be drawn.
How do we link outputs to objectives? The role of strategic planning
François Van Zyl
Head of Strategic Management, South African Reserve Bank
While a strategic vision of institutional objectives is critical, change occurs in the implementation, rather than the formulation, of strategy. Outputs must be linked to strategic goals and this requires a top-to-bottom realisation that departmental goals must serve strategic objectives. Senior management involvement and support is of course integral to this process. This case study focuses on the implementation of the strategic planning process within the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), considering how the SARB’s strategic planning function helps management to formulate, implement and evaluate strategy across the institution as a whole.
Are we working effectively? Management information, performance measurement and benchmarking
Gilles Noblet
Counsellor to the President, European Central Bank
Without objective management data, and specific measurable targets, modernisation programmes fail. Conversely, the creation, use and development of management information systems, in particular those which deliver financial and budgetary information, can act as a powerful catalyst for organisational reform. The unique roles and functions of central banks make performance measurement and the provision of effective management information tricky. Creative review processes are necessary to ensure decision makers can effectively evaluate outputs and allocate key resources to best effect. Often they must make difficult, perhaps even painful, judgments to set the right priorities. This session examines these key issues with reference to the European Central Bank’s recent zero-based budgeting exercise.
Can outsiders help? Outsourcing, collaboration and external expertise
Semming Austin
Assistant Director, Norges Bankl
Pressure on central banks to increase efficiency or increase organisational focus leads many central banks to considering outsourcing non-core functions. Technology functions are frequently evaluated for outsourcing. This session examines the key factors that are important for central banks to consider when approaching any outsourcing project. It highlights some of the lessons learned from the IT outsourcing project in Norges Bank (Norway’s central bank). The main emphasis is on organisational, personnel-related, and management issues.
Starting
from scratch and building capability: dealing with political instability,
IFIs and donor-funding
Luis Quintaneiro
Bank of Portugal and former
governor, Banking and Payments
Authority of Timor-Leste (invited)
Managing liberalisation and change
Lionel Van Lare Dosoo
Deputy Governor, Bank of Ghana
Central banks in developing countries face a cluster of challenges and obstacles in their operations. Frequently they are required to develop and strengthen the private financial sector in parallel with modernising and reforming their own structures. This requires the same disciplines of project management, strategic focus and active leadership. This session examines how one developing country central bank has tackled these twin challenges.
Modernising the Riksbank – focusing on core purposes
Mats Galvenius
Head of Secretariat, Riksbank
Increasingly, central banks from industrialised-countries are implementing change programmes aimed at improving efficiency and focusing on core activities. In recent years, the Riksbank has tried to refine its activities to focus on analytical work in the fields of monetary policy and financial stability. In this process the bank’s former operations in the fields of cash management and production of statistics have been transferred to other bodies. Staff numbers have fallen by more than 40% over ten years. Departments have been merged and new governance structures have been created to underline departmental responsibility for daily activities. Drawing on the Riksbank’s experiences this session examines some of the key prerequisites and techniques for successful refocusing towards “core functions”.
Chairman: John Mendzela, Director, Mendhurst Associates
Planning
change for the 21st century central bank
John
Mendzela
Mendhurst Associates
The shape of the 21st century
central bank is still emerging. But some outlines are already apparent.
Central banks need to take active advantage of a complex, technologically
advanced and global “knowledge economy”. They must accept
the blurring of organisational boundaries, exchange people and ideas with
other sources of expertise in highly flexible ways, and adapt to working
in a creative, team-based culture. Project sponsorship and management
become core skills, not just desirable ones. Organisational structures,
career paths and reward systems will all need fresh thinking. Indeed the
21st century central bank will need to go beyond effectiveness and efficiency
and add a new virtue that we might call “exploration”, involving
the ability to influence different issues in new ways. This session outlines
the new leadership skills and management practices required.
Action plans: workshop and course
round-up
led by John
Mendzela
This final discussion session provides
the group with an opportunity to pull together key themes and issues from
the week. Delegates will be asked to reflect again on their on key issues
in the light of the week’s discussions and be encouraged to formulate
key points into an action plan to take back to their home institutions.
|