Available in English

II Meeting of Heads of Financial Market Infrastructures

Videoconference
September 22 to 24, 2021

 

Wednesday, September 22

Welcome remarks
Dr. Manuel Ramos Francia, Director General, CEMLA
Dr. Juan Ayuso, Director General of Operations, Markets and Payment Systems, Banco de España

Keynote presentation. Digital Payments: Regulation and or Public Provision by Professor Jean Charles Rochet, Unige and Swiss Finance Institute.

Moderated by Serafín Martínez-Jaramillo, Adviser to the Director General, CEMLA

Session 1. Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC): Practical Implications for Payment Systems

Almost 90% of central banks are involved in projects related to the research, experimentation or possible launch of a CBDC, according to a recent BIS survey. Regardless of its macroeconomic and financial implications, this initiative poses significant practical challenges for operators and those responsible for monitoring financial market infrastructures. This session will serve to explore issues related to its design, operation and interoperability with existing payment circuits

Moderated by José Manuel Marqués, Head of the Financial Innovation Division, Banco de España

 

Thursday, September 23

Session 2. Cross-Border Payments: Progress on the G20 Roadmap

Given the long-lasting shortcomings of cross-border payments in terms of cost, speed, access and lack of transparency, the G20 has set an ambitious roadmap to contribute to their gradual improvement. The Financial Stability Board and the Committee of Payment and Market Infrastructure are in charge of advancing this roadmap. This session will serve to deep dive on the milestones of this initiative, as well as the challenges ahead.

Moderated by Raúl Morales-Resendiz, Director of Financial Markets and Infrastructures, CEMLA

 

Session 3. Roundtable on cross-border payments in Latin America and the Caribbean

Latin American and Caribbean economies have a long and growing history as recipients of remittances. Regional commercial activity has also had a significant boom in different subregions. At the same time, the region has been severely affected by deterioration in international correspondent banking services, increased regulatory restrictions for international banking, and highly costly and inefficient cross-border payment services. This session will serve to discuss what role the region's central banks can play to strengthen cross-border payment mechanisms and schemes within the region, bearing in mind the G20 Roadmap.

Moderated by Othón Moreno, Director of Policy and Research of Payment Systems and Market Infrastructures, Banco de México


Friday, September 24

Session 4. Fast payments. Towards a new normal? Advantages and challenges

As a consequence of digitization, the use of fast payments is spreading rapidly worldwide. In several cases, these schemes have the support of central banks, either as infrastructure providers or in their role as catalysts. Furthermore, the development of this new payment instrument can facilitate solutions that improve cross-border payments. This panel will discuss different experiences on how fast payments are developing, their advantages and challenges.

Moderated by Elizabeth Téllez, Senior Economist, CEMLA


Session 5. Retail payments, rethinking the role of regulation

The retail payments ecosystem has changed dramatically in recent years. The presence of new providers, some of a systemic nature such as Bigtechs and possible stablecoin schemes managed by these same tech global companies, can bring important benefits to strengthen competition, inclusion and efficiency in the provision of retail payment services. On the other hand, new challenges have emerged for central banks in terms of regulation and oversight of these new providers and business models. This session will serve to learn about the efforts of some authorities inside and outside the region to rethink their payment regulation schemes.

Moderated by Montserrat Jiménez, Head of Oversight Division, Banco de España


 

 

AvatarProfessor Jean Charles Rochet
Swiss Finance Institute

Jean-Charles Rochet is professor of banking at GSEM and senior chair at the Swiss Finance Institute. He is also visiting professor at Zürich University. He holds a Ph.D. in mathematical economics from Paris University. He has taught at the Toulouse School of Economics, at the London School of Economics, and has visited many universities and central banks all over the world. He was President of the Econometric Society in 2012 and has been a Fellow of this society since 1995. He has published more than 80 articles in international scientific journals and 7 books, including “Microeconomics of Banking” (with X. Freixas) at MIT Press, “Balancing the Banks” (with M.Dewatripont and J.Tirole) and “Why are there so many banking Crises?”, both at Princeton UP. His research interests include banking, financial stability, industrial organization of financial markets, and contract theory.

 

AvatarAnders Mölgaard
Senior Advisor, Sveriges Riksbank



 

AvatarMasaki Bessho
Head of FinTech Center, Payment and Settlement Systems Department. Bank of Japan

Masaki Bessho has been Head of FinTech Center, Payment and Settlement Systems Department, Bank of Japan, since September 2021. He is also responsible for research and international affairs at the Department, with particular focus on CBDCs and stablecoins. He joined the Bank of Japan in 1994 and served for a range of responsibilities including Deputy Chief Representative for Europe (2017-19, London), Head of Financial Infrastructure Studies Division (2015-17), Deputy Head of Legal Division (2012-15), Head of IMF/World Bank Annual Meeting Preparation Group (2011-12), Head of Investment and Market Research (2009-10, International Department). At Financial Infrastructure Studies Division, he led a range of research projects on digital currencies from legal, accounting and IT security perspectives. At the early stage of his career, he was based in Frankfurt am Main as Representative in Frankfurt. He received an LL.M. from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA, and an LL.B. from Kyoto University, Japan. He has been admitted to practice law in the State of New York.

 

AvatarFábio Araujo
BCoordinator of the Digital Real Initiative at the BCB Banco Central do Brasil

Fabio Araujo – telecommunications engineer and PhD in economics – has been working at Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) since 1998. At the beginning of in his career in the BCB he took part in the implementation of the Inflation Targeting regime in Brazil and, afterwards, dedicated himself to advising the conduct of the BCB’s monetary policy. More recently, Fabio was the head of the Office of Economic Advisors to the Governor and currently coordinates the work for the future implementation of a digital version of the Brazilian Real (BRL).

 

AvatarMario Griffiths
Head Payment System Policy and Development Department, Financial Markets Infrastructure Division Bank of Jamaica.

Mario Griffiths, Head Payment System Policy and Development Department, Financial Markets Infrastructure Division, Bank of Jamaica. He holds a BSc in Business Administration majoring in Finance at the Northern Caribbean University and an MBA in Banking and Finance from the University of the West Indies, Jamaica

Mario Griffiths is head of Payment System Policy and Development Department, where he is charged with responsibilities for development of policies and operational compliance programs necessary for effective oversight of payment systems. He also proactively advise on developments and changes in financial technology (Fintech) which impact the NPS. Currently, Mr. Griffiths is the Technical Expert providing support and technical advice on the implementation of the CBDC Pilot project.

Mr. Griffiths represents the Financial Markets Infrastructure Division on several committees and working groups in the area of Fintech, Fast Payments, CBDC and Financial System Stability.

In 2016, Mr. Griffiths was seconded to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) where he was assigned to the Monetary and Economic Department, Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructure (CPMI).

 

AvatarCarlos Conesa
Associate Director General Financial Innovation and Market Infrastructures Banco de España

Carlos Conesa is Associate Director General Financial Innovation and Market Infrastructures at Banco de España. Carlos started working at the Bank in 1998 and has developed his career in several positions, but always working on issues related to payment systems and other market infrastructures. At present, his responsibilities focus on the design, implementation and operation of the Eurosystem's market infrastructures and on monitoring financial innovation. He represents the Banco de España on the Committee for Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel and on the Board of Market Infrastructures (MIB) of the European Central Bank

 

AvatarJavier Pérez-Tasso
Chief Executive Officer at SWIFT

Prior to this he was Chief Executive, Americas & UK region since September 2015. In this position, he significantly deepened SWIFT’s engagement model with global transaction banks and successfully delivered business development results in high-growth markets. He was also an Executive sponsor of SWIFT’s Customer Security Programme from 2016 to 2018, helping to formulate and lead SWIFT’s response to the growing cyber challenge facing the community.

Pérez-Tasso joined SWIFT in 1995 and held a number of position including as Chief Marketing Officer, a role in which he was responsible for developing SWIFT’s current five-year strategy. The SWIFT2020 strategy he defined has led to the co-operative’s renewed focus on cross-border payments, expansion into financial crime compliance and deeper presence in the market infrastructures area, including its entry into instant payments. Earlier in his career, Pérez-Tasso held a number of technology and leadership positions in business development in regional offices in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

 

AvatarJohn Whelan
Managing Director - Digital Assets, Santander

Leader and program manager for Santander's Corporate and Investment Bank's digital assets program including: cryptocurrencies, central bank digital currencies, stablecoins, blockchain-based securities, various industry DLT-consortia, etc.

Notable achievements include: first issuance of end-to-end digital bond on the public Ethereum network, launch of Fnality International, founding of Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, etc.

 

AvatarFabiola M. Herrera de Valdez
Deputy Manager Systems and Technological Innovation Central Bank of the Dominican Republic

Ms. Herrera current work areas include Payment Systems, IT, Cybersecurity, and innovation, and because of this, also Fintech, Financial Inclusion and Financial Education.

After 14 years in the private banking sector, she joined the Central Bank in 1996, in the IT Department. From 2006, she was for 12 years Director of Payment Systems, and the project manager for the National Payment System Reform. She currently oversees the Departments of Payment Systems, IT, and Cyber Security. As such, recently promoted the national legal framework for cybersecurity in the financial sector, and the creation of a cyber-incident response center for this sector. Currently, is supporting the implementation of an Innovation HUB for the financial system, with the assistance of the IDB.

From 2005 to 2018, she represented the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic before the Payment Systems Technical Committee of the Central American Monetary Council (CMCA), a committee that promotes the operation of SIPA, a system that interconnects the payment systems of the countries that belong to the CMCA. In addition, she was Vice Chairman of the Working Group on Payment Systems Issues in Latin America and the Caribbean (GTSP - LAC) of the Payment and Securities Settlement Forum of the Western Hemisphere. Currently, she represents the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic before the Fintech Forum coordinated by the CEMLA (Center for Latin American Monetary Studies). Locally, is a member of the National Table for Digital Economy, hosted by the Presidency and represents the Central Bank at the National Cybersecurity Council.

 

AvatarAndrés-Mauricio Velasco
Central Bank of Colombia (Banco de la República)

Chief Officer for Payment Systems and Banking Operation at the Central Bank of Colombia (Banco de la República).

Mr. Velasco is a former Deputy Minister of Finance (2017-2018) and a former General Macroeconomic Policy Director at the Ministry of Finance (2014-2017). He worked previously at the Central Bank, as Expert Economist of the Research Unit (2011-2014) and as Inflation Staff Member (2003-2007). He worked at the think-tank Fedesarrollo as a Junior Researcher (1999-2003).

MPhil in Economics (2009) from University of Oxford, UK. Economist (2001) and MA in Economics (2002) from Universidad Javeriana, Colombia.

He has been lecturer of macroeconomics at several universities in Colombia, and at University of Oxford. He currently teaches introductory macroeconomics at Universidad del Rosario, and Dynamic Macroeconomics to graduate students at CESA.

 

AvatarMark D. Manuszak
Deputy Associate Director in the Division of Reserve Bank Operations and Payment Studies Federal Reserve Board

Mark Manuszak is a Deputy Associate Director in the Division of Reserve Bank Operations and Payment Studies at the Federal Reserve Board. In this role, Mark is responsible for the research function related to payments at the Board, overseeing the Federal Reserve Payments Study and numerous other research efforts. He has also been closely involved in a number of policy workstreams at the Board, including the decision to develop the FedNow Service and current consideration of potential changes to the Fedwire Funds Service, such as expansion of the service’s operating hours. Mark has represented the Board on a number of workgroups commissioned by the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, most notably the CPMI Workgroup on Retail Payments that produced the reports on fast payments and cross-border retail payments. He is currently a member of the CPMI workgroup tasked with addressing Building Blocks 10 and 12 from the FSB’s roadmap and is leading the work for Building Block 12 on extending and aligning operating hours of key payment systems. Prior to joining the Board in 2005, Mark was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University and his undergradute degree in economics from Georgetown University.

 

AvatarCarlos Sanz
Director of the Payment Systems Department Banco de España

Bachelor or Laws from the University of Alicante and specialist in Financial Markets Law from the Institute of Stock Market Studies (IEB). He joined the Bank of Spain as a technician in 1993 and has held several positions until his appointment as director of the Payment Systems Department in 2018. Mr. Sanz is Member of the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures of the European System of Central Banks.

 

AvatarOthón Moreno
Director of Policy and Research of Payment Systems and Market Infrastructures Banco de México

Director of Policy and Research of Payment Systems and Market Infrastructures

Jun. 2019 - Present 2 years 4 months

Policy and Surveillance Manager of Payment Systems

Jun. 2016 - Jun. 2019 3 years 1 month

 

AvatarAngelo Duarte
Head of Department Competition and Financial Market Structure Banco Central do Brasil

Gerente de Información Financiera. Encargada de coordinar la preparación y divulgación de la información financiera del Banco de México.

Graduated in Engineering at the Airforce Institute of Technology, he holds the PhD in Economics from Fundação Getulio Vargas School of Economics (EPGE / FGV).

Analyst of the Central Bank of Brazil since 1998, where he was Economic Advisor to the Governor´s Office and is currently Head of the Competition and Financial Market Structure Department. He worked at the Economic Policy Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance and he was also a visiting economist at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) between 2013 and 2016.

 

AvatarSolange Bernstein
Banco Central de Chile

Solange Berstein Jauregui was appointed Director of the Financial Policy Division of the Central Bank of Chile in April 2017.

Ms. Berstein studied business administration at the University of Santiago, Chile. She holds a Master of Arts in economics from Ilades/Georgetown University and a PhD in economics from Boston University.

Berstein was a Senior Specialist in the pensions area at the Labor Markets and Social Security Unit of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). She served as Chile’s Superintendent of Pension Funds from 2006 to 2014, after previously working as Head of Research at the Superintendence of Pension Funds since 2003 to 2006. From 2001 to 2003, she was a senior economist in the Research Division of the Central Bank of Chile.

Ms. Berstein has had an eminent academic career. She has published numerous articles in academic journals and participated in a wide range of international conferences.

Her academic activities include teaching courses in the Master of Economics programs at the University of Chile and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

 

AvatarCéu Pereira
European Commission

Céu Pereira is an economist and team leader for retail payments in Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services & Capital Markets, at the European Commission. She has many years’ experience on payments and financial sector regulation at the European Commission, and in previous positions at the ECB, the World Bank, and as a financial attaché at the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the European Union. She has a Masters on European Integration from the College of Europe.

 

AvatarLeslie-Ann Des Vignes
Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago

Ms. Leslie-Ann Des Vignes is the Assistant Manager of the Payments System Oversight Division in the Financial Institutions Supervision Department at the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, where she has worked for over 25 years. During this time, Ms Des Vignes also worked as an Economist in the Research & Policy Department for over 15 years and in 2009, was seconded to the International Monetary Fund for two years as the Senior Advisor, Office of the Executive Director (OED) in the Brazilian Chair as Trinidad and Tobago’s representative

Ms. Des Vignes holds a Bachelor of Science (Upper Second Class Honours) in Economics and Mathematics from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine and a Master of Science in Statistics from the same institution

 

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