V Course on Financial Market Infrastructures

The Directorate of Financial Market Infrastructures of CEMLA organized the V Course on Financial Market Infrastructures. This course was held virtually on May 14 and 15, 2025. It was attended by 138 representatives of 23 institutions and CEMLA associates. During the course, the main concepts and principles of Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs) were introduced.

In the first session, Ángel González from the Banco de la Republica Dominicana presented the payment instruments from barter, money to cards and electronic means of payment today. It noted the difference between real-time gross settlement and deferred net settlement systems. He presented the new standards in security, as well as the trends of new payment systems.

During the second session, Mario Ernesto from the Banco Central de la Reserva del El Salvador presented the main characteristics and functions of Payment Systems, Securities Depositories, the Securities Settlement System, Central Counterparties and Operations Registries as the main types of MFIs. He concluded by presenting the scheme of these FMIs in the context of El Salvador's financial system.

For the third session, Gerardo Hernández from CEMLA, addressed the concept of risk in its different modalities applied to FMIs. He began by providing an exhaustive presentation of the associated bibliography. Then, through examples, he presented the different risks, as well as the main sources and potential impacts, and proposed some mitigation strategies. He concluded by presenting some measures for managing these risks and the challenges they generate.

To conclude the first day, Milton Vega of the Banco Central de la Reserva del Perú introduced the principles applicable to FMIs, these being the fundamental guidelines that must prevail when designing, establishing, supervising and monitoring the infrastructures mentioned above. He stressed that its objectives are the security and efficiency that allow a reliable financial system.

The second day began with a session on the responsibilities of central banks and other institutions within FMIs on the design, operation and oversight of FMIs, given by Raul Morales from SWIFT. He explained that it is due to market failures that do not ensure the most efficient or safest practices the reason why central banks have to intervene.

In the following session, Othon Moreno from the Banco de México presented oversight as a function of the central bank that aims to achieve the efficiency and security of MFIs. This function has as its main tools monitoring, evaluation, diagnosis, induction of changes and implementation. He highlighted the difference with surveillance and supervision.

Subsequently, as examples of FMIs, Daniel Garrido of the Banco de México, and Dionisio Valdivieso of the Banco de la República , presented the evolution of the fast payment systems of each country, SPEI and Bre-B, respectively. For his part, Elmer Sánchez of the Banco de la Reserva del Perú, presented the CBDC project that has been developed together with the telecommunications company Bital.

To close the event, Matheus Rauber, from the Banco Central do Brasil, presented two projects developed in his country: the PIX system and the implementation of Open Finance. He emphasized the development of the regulation carried out since 2001 to achieve such projects.