Max Castelli, head of strategy for sovereign institutions at UBS Asset Management, joins Yara Aziz, economist at OMFIF, to unpack the global reserve response after 2 April – a date proclaimed by President Donald Trump as Liberation Day. They dive into US policy shifts, the dollar’s evolving role, rising demand for gold and whether Europe is finally ready to take the lead.
Zain Saidin, chief executive officer of Tassat, joins editor of OMFIF's Digital Monetary Institute, Lewis McLellan, to discuss the value of private blockchain networks for regulated finance. The discussion covers how the transparency typical of public blockchains may present trade-offs where counterparties want to know each other but cannot know each other's trading behaviour. They also discuss Lynq – a real-time yield-bearing settlement network for digital assets, sitting on a private instituti...
Ahead of the Blue Economy and Finance Forum taking place on 7-8 June 2025 , Louise Heaps, Global Lead Sustainable Blue Economy, and Maud Abdelli, Greening Financial Regulation Initiative Lead at the Worldwide Fund for Nature, join OMFIF's Isabella Frymoyer to explore how financial institutions can advance ocean sustainability. The conversation highlights the key priorities, challenges and tools needed to scale investment in the blue economy, ultimately outlining the importance of encouraging blu...
Jonathan Griffiths, senior investment specialist at Capital Group, joins Arunima Sharan, senior economist at OMFIF’s Economic and Monetary Policy Institute, to unpack Capital Group’s 2025 Capital Market Assumptions and explore perspectives for institutional investors navigating an increasingly complex global investment landscape. They discuss themes ranging from opportunities in emerging market, to fixed income strategies and currency outlooks over the next two decades....
Instant payments systems are proliferating rapidly, and many central banks are working hard on interlinking them to enable quick, efficient cross-border payments. However, while IPS can provide extremely rapid, low-cost payments, they are not immune to fraud and erroneous payments. Given the speed of settlement, these problems can be even more difficult to resolve than they are for other payments systems. Petia Niederländer, head of payments, risk monitoring and financial literacy at Oesterreich...
Real-world asset tokenisation is accelerating, particularly within private distributed ledger technology platforms like R3's Corda. But Richard Brown, R3’s chief technology officer, believes that the future of financial market infrastructure lies in the convergence of private networks like Corda and public networks like Ethereum and Solana. He joins Lewis McLellan, editor of OMFIF’s Digital Monetary Institute, to discuss the opportunity that DLT presents for an overhaul of financial market infra...
Paul Blustein, author of King Dollar: The Past and Future of the World's Dominant Currency , joins OMFIF to discuss his latest book and thoughts on why the dollar has been, continues to be and will remain the world's dominant currency. He discusses why the euro and renminbi are not viable alternatives, whether there is a role for cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, if excess US use of financial sanctions could weaken the dollar's global role and what other landmines might lie ahead, including Amer...
OMFIF’s 2024 survey of central banks found that, while three-quarters of respondents are continuing their plans to issue central bank digital currencies, one-third have delayed their timelines. However, this was before the change in US government and the decision not to pursue CBDCs, instead prioritising digital assets. A follow-up OMFIF survey revealed that this development has encouraged some central banks outside the US to move in the opposite direction and accelerate their CBDC plans. Wolfra...
Amelia Santos-Paulino, chief of investment research at the United Nations Trade and Development's investment and enterprise division, joins OMFIF to discuss some of the key priorities in sustainability for UNTAD in 2025. She considers the space for trade and investment flows in international climate discussions, particularly in the face of recent elections. She also discusses the critical growth sectors associated with sustainable trade and the opportunities and challenges faced by emerging mark...
Max Castelli, head of strategy for sovereign institutions, and Philipp Salman, director of strategy for sovereign institutions at UBS Asset Management, join Yara Aziz, economist at OMFIF, to discuss how sovereign investors are adapting their strategies for 2025. They explore US President Trump’s policies, the outlook for the dollar and the impact of artificial intelligence on the future of the Magnificent Seven stocks.
Discourse on the rewiring of payments and financial markets has been dominated in 2024 by talk of unified ledgers. The technical promises and challenges this architecture entails are gradually becoming better understood, but before the prototypes can become reality, the legal challenges must be fully explored. Natalie Lewis, partner at Travers Smith, joins Lewis McLellan, editor of OMFIF’s Digital Monetary Institute, to discuss what the legal implications of unified ledgers will be.
Wendy Teleki, head of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative at the World Bank, joins Arunima Sharan, senior economist at OMFIF's Economic and Monetary Policy Institute, to discuss how the We Finance Code is tackling the $1.7tn financing gap facing women entrepreneurs. They explore We-Fi's work across 80 countries and examine how supporting women-led businesses creates positive social impact through improved education, employment and economic empowerment.
Tokenisation is frequently discussed as a means of improving the efficiency of existing financial markets, but the technology may offer the chance to create entirely new types of economic activity. The immense reach of distributed ledger technology-based tokens makes them a vector of greater inclusion to types of markets previously inaccessible to the general public. Additionally, the collaborative decision-making facilitated by tokenisation can encourage new types of co-operation between compet...
Yara Aziz, economist at OMFIF’s Economic and Monetary Policy Institute, speaks with Ashleigh Lee, co-lead secretariat of the City of London Corporation’s Transition Finance Market Review, to discuss the findings of the Transition Finance Market Review report. They explore the challenges and opportunities in scaling transition finance, strategies to prevent greenwashing and the global collaboration required to drive decarbonisation.
Mark Sobel, US Chair, OMFIF, speaks with Max Castelli, head of strategy, sovereign institutions, UBS Asset Management, on the role of the US dollar and the various dedollarisation scenarios. They discuss significance of Saudi Arabia’s decision to join the mBridge multi-currency CBDC platform and the potential implications for the incumbent USD-based financial system.
Flavio Carpenzano, fixed income investment director at Capital Group, joins Burhan Khadbai, head of content for OMFIF’s Sovereign Debt Institute, to look back at the performance of the investment grade credit market in 2024 and the outlook for next year. They discuss how credit spreads are continuing to compress despite elevated levels of supply and to what extent this will evolve as markets move into a lower yield environment with the easing of monetary policy. The discussion also looks at the ...
Bitcoin's price has surged following Donald Trump's victory in the US election. Trump's campaign was calculated to appeal to the crypto world, so the move comes as no surprise, but what are policy changes can we expect and do they warrant this kind of explosive price action? To discuss these questions, Lewis McLellan, editor of the Digital Monetary Institute at OMFIF, is joined by Brian Whitehurst, head of regulatory affairs at Lukka, Suzanne Morsfield, global head at Lukka, and Dorothy DeWitt, ...
A recent OMFIF-EY report on the future of public money outlines the need for governments to embrace new ideas, frameworks and technology. Joining Nikhil Sanghani, managing director, Economic and Monetary Policy Institute at OMFIF, is Mark MacDonald, global public finance management leader at EY, and Joachim Schwerin, principal economist, DG GROW at the European Commission. They discuss why governments should embrace new technology as well as how blockchain and artificial intelligence can improve...
Anne Simpson, global head of sustainability at Franklin Templeton, joins Emma McGarthy, head of OMFIF’s Sustainable Policy Institute, to assess the role of public pension and sovereign funds in transition finance. They also discuss the work of the Transition Finance Working Group, which has spoken with 12 of the biggest funds on their transition strategies and challenges. The working group conversations have been distilled into a research report by OMFIF, which will be launched at a seminar duri...
2024 has seen exciting developments in the wholesale central bank digital currency space. Abbas Albasha, senior strategy consultant for CBDC at Giesecke+Devrient, joins Lewis McLellan, OMFIF's Digital Monetary Institute editor, to discuss the value that wholesale CBDC can offer economies, how they can integrate with other forms of money including retail CBDC and some of the challenges those looking to implement them are facing.
Many in capital markets have long been expecting an overhaul in how their business functions from the disruptive effects of digital assets technology. So far, these effects have not been substantial outside isolated pockets where implementation has leaped ahead. But many believe we are approaching an inflection point and that dramatic changes are about to arrive for financial market infrastructure. Kate Karimson, R3's chief commercial officer, joins Lewis McLellan, OMFIF's Digital Monetary Insti...
In early September 2024, the European Commission published the long-awaited ‘ The future of European competitiveness: Report by Mario Draghi ', which examines in detail the challenges faced by European industry and companies in the single market. OMFIF lead economist Taylor Pearce hosts Bill Papadakis, macro strategist at Lombard Odier, to discuss the structural and macro trends the EU economy is contending with and how these are impacting key areas of the economy and financial system....
One of the major structural factors impacting government financing is the massive scale of public money needed to ensure the transition to a carbon neutral economy. How are trends in government debt issuance evolving as they relate to sustainability? Alex Caridia, head of public sector markets at RBC and Heather Taylor, partner, climate change and sustainability at EY, join OMFIF lead economist Taylor Pearce to discuss. The conversation is a part of OMFIF’s workstream on the Future of public mon...
At present, in most jurisdictions, only commercial banks are able to provide final settlement of payments as the only institutions with access to central bank reserves. However, new business models have emerged that unbundle the business of creating money and payment services from the provision of credit. Should payments be unbundled from banking? Circle's chief economist Gordon Liao and OMFIF's Digital Monetary Institute editor Lewis McLellan discuss the regulatory treatment of stablecoins and ...
Around a third of the world lack reliable internet access and among the two thirds that have access, disruptions and restrictions are far from unknown. Ensuring that digital payments solutions are reliable and have the broadest reach possible requires that they can function offline. Though the need is well understood, the challenges of meeting it remain. Lars Hupel, G+D's chief evangelist, joins OMFIF's Digital Monetary Institute editor Lewis McLellan to discuss how offline capabilities enhance ...
Christopher Smart, former senior US Treasury and National Security Council official and managing partner of Arbroath Group, joins OMFIF's US chair Mark Sobel, to discuss the economic plans of presidential candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. They compare the candidates' differences on fiscal, monetary, exchange rate, trade and immigration policies.
Omar Massarweh, vice president of public policy for the Middle East and North Africa at Mastercard, joins Arunima Sharan, senior economist at OMFIF to discuss key findings from the ‘Path to Morocco’ project completed by OMFIF in partnership with Mastercard, aimed at fostering public-private dialogue and ensuring that financial inclusion remains at the core of future economies. Their conversation touches on the alignment of current financial systems with the World Economic Forum's shared principl...
Jeremy Cunningham, investment director at Capital Group, speaks with Arunima Sharan, senior economist at OMFIF to discuss the latest trends in emerging markets debt. They explore the re-emergence of these markets in investors' minds and how perceptions of EM debt have shifted in recent years. The conversation covers current and future opportunities in this local and hard currency EM bonds, factors contributing to higher return potential, and associated risks. OMFIF’s Q3 Bulletin on emerging mark...
Vlad Rashkovan, Ukraine's representative to the International Monetary Fund, joins Mark Sobel, OMFIF’s US chair, to provide an update on Ukraine's economic and financial situation. They assess the country's progress in implementing economic reforms despite the war and the hardships facing Ukraine's people. They explore how Ukraine is using both domestic resources and international financing to maintain stability, and Rashkovan gives his views on the disposition of blocked Russian central bank an...
Max Castelli, head of strategy, sovereign institutions at UBS asset management, and Philipp Salman, also on the team at UBS, speak with OMFIF Lead Economist Taylor Pearce to discuss the latest observable trends in central bank reserve management. They discuss investment strategies, currency and asset allocations and the factors influencing reserve managers’ investment decisions in the current macroenvironment, which UBS have been tracking for 30 years now. OMFIF's 2024 GPI report on central bank...
