Central Bank Reserve Management Practices : Insights into Public Asset Management from the Second RAMP Survey

In the summer of 2019, the World Bank Treasury’s Reserve Advisory and Management Partnership (RAMP) conducted its second survey on central banks’ reserve management practices, with a particular focus on governance, accounting, and other operational practices. Understanding these practices is par...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: World Bank
Format: Working Paper
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/294551588015858209/Central-Bank-Reserve-Management-Practices-Insights-into-Public-Asset-Management-from-the-Second-Ramp-Survey
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33657
id okr-10986-33657
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-336572021-05-25T10:54:44Z Central Bank Reserve Management Practices : Insights into Public Asset Management from the Second RAMP Survey World Bank CENTRAL BANK BANK RESERVE RISK MANAGEMENT STRATEGIC ASSET ALLOCATION ACCOUNTING RESERVE MANAGEMENT POLICY FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS In the summer of 2019, the World Bank Treasury’s Reserve Advisory and Management Partnership (RAMP) conducted its second survey on central banks’ reserve management practices, with a particular focus on governance, accounting, and other operational practices. Understanding these practices is particularly relevant during the COVID-19 crisis, as central banks use their foreign currency reserves to help their countries deal with capital outflows and sharp decreases in exports, tourism, and remittances. On governance, the survey finds that the most common practice is that boards set the investment policy and guidelines, investment committees review the proposals to the board and monitor implementation, and operational units make day-to-day decisions and develop proposals for the board. Central banks have different organizational arrangements for their operational units. The survey results also show that most central banks are well-positioned to provide foreign currency liquidity during the coronavirus pandemic, as they continue to invest their reserves in high-quality fixed-income assets. At the same time, the gradual diversification to nontraditional asset classes continues. The allocation to emerging market bonds, corporate bonds, and mortgage-backed securities of central banks reserves increased slightly since the previous survey. The data show considerable cross-country differences in the way central banks manage their reserves, and in some circumstances, the analysis suggests these differences correlate with respondents’ country income groups and levels of reserve adequacy. Regarding accounting practices, two-thirds of central banks report some degree of implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The survey also reveals multiple practices to distribute central bank net income to governments. However, data suggest that the transfers of profits between central banks and ministries of finance are not symmetrical—central banks are more likely to distribute profits than to receive financial support in case of losses. 2020-04-27T18:40:37Z 2020-04-27T18:40:37Z 2020-04-27 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/294551588015858209/Central-Bank-Reserve-Management-Practices-Insights-into-Public-Asset-Management-from-the-Second-Ramp-Survey http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33657 Development Knowledge and Learning; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Working Paper
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
topic CENTRAL BANK
BANK RESERVE
RISK MANAGEMENT
STRATEGIC ASSET ALLOCATION
ACCOUNTING
RESERVE MANAGEMENT POLICY
FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVE
INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS
spellingShingle CENTRAL BANK
BANK RESERVE
RISK MANAGEMENT
STRATEGIC ASSET ALLOCATION
ACCOUNTING
RESERVE MANAGEMENT POLICY
FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVE
INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS
World Bank
Central Bank Reserve Management Practices : Insights into Public Asset Management from the Second RAMP Survey
relation Development Knowledge and Learning;
description In the summer of 2019, the World Bank Treasury’s Reserve Advisory and Management Partnership (RAMP) conducted its second survey on central banks’ reserve management practices, with a particular focus on governance, accounting, and other operational practices. Understanding these practices is particularly relevant during the COVID-19 crisis, as central banks use their foreign currency reserves to help their countries deal with capital outflows and sharp decreases in exports, tourism, and remittances. On governance, the survey finds that the most common practice is that boards set the investment policy and guidelines, investment committees review the proposals to the board and monitor implementation, and operational units make day-to-day decisions and develop proposals for the board. Central banks have different organizational arrangements for their operational units. The survey results also show that most central banks are well-positioned to provide foreign currency liquidity during the coronavirus pandemic, as they continue to invest their reserves in high-quality fixed-income assets. At the same time, the gradual diversification to nontraditional asset classes continues. The allocation to emerging market bonds, corporate bonds, and mortgage-backed securities of central banks reserves increased slightly since the previous survey. The data show considerable cross-country differences in the way central banks manage their reserves, and in some circumstances, the analysis suggests these differences correlate with respondents’ country income groups and levels of reserve adequacy. Regarding accounting practices, two-thirds of central banks report some degree of implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The survey also reveals multiple practices to distribute central bank net income to governments. However, data suggest that the transfers of profits between central banks and ministries of finance are not symmetrical—central banks are more likely to distribute profits than to receive financial support in case of losses.
format Working Paper
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Central Bank Reserve Management Practices : Insights into Public Asset Management from the Second RAMP Survey
title_short Central Bank Reserve Management Practices : Insights into Public Asset Management from the Second RAMP Survey
title_full Central Bank Reserve Management Practices : Insights into Public Asset Management from the Second RAMP Survey
title_fullStr Central Bank Reserve Management Practices : Insights into Public Asset Management from the Second RAMP Survey
title_full_unstemmed Central Bank Reserve Management Practices : Insights into Public Asset Management from the Second RAMP Survey
title_sort central bank reserve management practices : insights into public asset management from the second ramp survey
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2020
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/294551588015858209/Central-Bank-Reserve-Management-Practices-Insights-into-Public-Asset-Management-from-the-Second-Ramp-Survey
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33657
_version_ 1764479237317722112