The Board of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) announced on Tuesday plans to expand the BIS Innovation Hub with the establishment of new Hub centers across Europe and in North America in cooperation with member central banks. BIS revealed that within the next two years it will open centers in collaboration with the Bank of Canada (Toronto), the Bank of England (London), The European Central Bank/Eurosystem (Frankfurt and Paris), and four Nordic central banks (Danmarks Nationalbank, the Central Bank of Iceland, the Central Bank of Norway and Sveriges Riksbank) in Stockholm.
BIS further reported the expansion will build on the foundation already put in place by the first three Hub centers, which are in Hong Kong SAR with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Singapore with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and Switzerland with the Swiss National Bank.
While sharing more details about the hubs, Agustín Carstens, General Manager of BIS, stated that the BIS Innovation Hub is an investment in the future of central banking and the financial system and that the new centers will expand BIS’s reach significantly and help create a global force for “fintech innovation.” Benoît Cœuré, Head of the BIS Innovation Hub, went on to add:
“With this expansion, the Innovation Hub will be well placed to advance work on a broad range of issues of importance to the central banking community, including digital currency and digital payments, cyber security, distributed ledger technology and artificial intelligence. This expansion is a testament to the central banking community’s commitment to innovation and cooperation.”