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2.11 International Cooperation and Events
The 39th meeting of the Central Bank Governors’ Club of Central Asia, Black Sea Region and Balkan Countries, which was founded on the initiative of the CBRT, was hosted by the CBRT on 13-15 May 2018. The main themes of the meeting were the global economic outlook and financial conditions, the sustainability of a global economic upturn, and the advantages and challenges of central bank digital currencies.
In order to increase cooperation among the Governors’ Club member countries and to help with the preparations of the Governors’ Club meetings, the “Monetary Policy and Financial Stability Working Group,” established on the initiative of the CBRT, met two times in 2018, first on 26 January in Istanbul and later on 2 July in Bucharest. The subjects selected for discussion were the global economic outlook and financial conditions, spillovers of major central banks’ policy normalization to emerging economies, the sustainability of a global economic upturn, policy responses to capital outflows and the benefits and risks of faster payment systems.
The workshops on “OIC Economic Outlook” and “Financial lnclusion” founded on the initiative of the CBRT under the OIC, held their first meeting on 9-10 April 2018 in Istanbul. The final report on workshop outcomes was presented to Central Bank Governors at the 16th Meeting of the Central Banks and Monetary Authorities of OIC Member Countries. This meeting was held on 23-25 September 2018 in Antalya. The declaration published at the end of the meeting stated that the “Central Banks and Monetary Authorities of OIC Member Countries” would move their operations to the “OIC-COMCEC Central Banks Forum” and the CBRT would undertake the duties of its secretariat.
As part of the routine Article IV consultations with 189 members, an IMF delegation came to Turkey to discuss economic and fiscal policies. During this visit, meetings were coordinated by the CBRT and the Ministry of Treasury and Finance. The Bank contributed to the preliminary meeting held between relevant institutions before the delegation’s arrival and later attended the meetings with the IMF.
The Bank continued to seek stronger communication and bilateral cooperation with other central banks. In 2018, five new memorandums of understanding were signed with the Central Banks of Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Sudan and Kosovo to strengthen collaborations: the first three at the 39th Governors’ Club Meeting held between 13 and 15 May, and the rest in June and October, respectively. These new memorandums of understanding helped strengthen the CBRT’s network of international ties across a broad region that embraces the Balkans, the Black Sea basin, Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
Established in 2017 to enhance the effectiveness of the cooperation between the CBRT and other central banks and to allow the CBRT departments to benefit more from such cooperation, the “Committee of Cooperation with Central Banks” met four times in 2018. At these meetings, the committee assessed the activities held in 2017 and planned for 2018 and discussed expectations from departments regarding cooperation. Moreover, through the year, the committee shared periodic updates on cooperation with foreign central banks, assessed department demands and worked on the cooperation planning schedule for 2019.
Continuing to diversify its activities with the central banks with which it already cooperates, the CBRT intensified its current collaboration with the European Central Bank (ECB) and with the Italian and Ukrainian Central Banks. Staff were mutually seconded with the aim of sharing experience while working visits and workshops were conducted and joint seminars and conferences were organized.
As per the memorandum of understanding signed between the ECB and the CBRT, the Bank provided a seven-month staff secondment at the Stress Test Division of the ECB to work on the restructuring of the Stress-Test Analytics for Macroprudential Purposes in the Euro Area (Stamp€) framework. Likewise, pursuant to a memorandum of understanding, the Bank seconded employees to the Italian Central Bank for one month to work on intranet and internet management, digital content production, social media engagement, campaign management, and social media content planning.
To engage in high level dialogue, the CBRT conducted governor/deputy governor level meetings with the central banks of Albania, Germany, Indonesia, Georgia, Croatia, Italy, Malaysia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Sudan, Mongolia and the ECB. Much of the discussions at these meetings focused on the overall economic outlook and future bilateral cooperation.
To broaden the scope of technical collaboration, the Bank initiated activities of technical collaboration with new partners and worked on successful projects with the central banks of South Korea, Singapore, Brazil and Mexico.
The regional central banking seminar, which met in 2017 for the first time, focused on the role of central banks in economics education in 2018. Taking place in Istanbul in September, the seminar attracted 41 participants from the central banks of Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine and the ECB. Discussions centered around the importance of economic literacy for central banks, the use of plain language and the methods they use to reach out to a larger audience.
In line with its mutual and regional collaboration strategy, the Bank conducted another multilateral seminar on “Instruments Designed Against Global and Country-Specific Shocks and Their Impacts” in November in Istanbul. This seminar brought together the markets departments of peer emerging market central banks and enabled them to exchange experiences and technical information on new tools. Moreover, future financial risks and effective policy responses were discussed.
Bilateral working committees serve as another mechanism, by means of which the CBRT is able to engage in dialogues with other central banks. The eighth meeting of the Turkish Russian Working Group on Banking and Financial Cooperation was hosted by the Russian Central Bank on 19-21 June 2018. At this meeting, discussions centered around how to encourage trade in local currencies, accompanied by a strengthened correspondent banking relationship as well as current and future steps to enhance the cooperation between the financial sectors of both countries.
Decisions taken at this meeting were followed by another meeting on 14 August 2018 in Istanbul on improving the Turkish-Russian Banking Cooperation. Presided over by officials from the CBRT and the Russian Central Bank, the meeting was attended by the Turkish Ministry of Trade, BIST, Türk Eximbank, the Development and Investment Bank of Turkey (Development Bank), representatives from commercial, investment and participation banks and, on behalf of Russia, the Ministry of Economic Development, Moscow Exchange, trade attachés to Turkey, and representatives from relevant banks and companies. During this meeting, participants delved into mutual banking issues and possible solutions and sought new cooperation opportunities.
In addition, the Working Committee set up with the Iranian Central Bank in 2017 convened for the fourth time on 26-27 February 2018 in Isfahan, and for the fifth time on 27 September in Istanbul. The Working Committee established as per the memorandum of understanding signed between the CBRT and the Ukrainian Central Bank in 2017 held its first meeting on 4 April 2018 in Ankara.
As a member, the CBRT attended the biennial general meeting and the Policy Committee meeting of the European Banknote Conference on banknote printing and cash management organized by European central banks and printing houses. The Bank participated in two technical sub units of this conference: the Banknote Security Committee and the Manufacturing Process Committee. In addition, CBRT representatives also took part in the activities of the Policy Committee Advisor Group, which is responsible for assessing the effectiveness of the conference’s management and operations.
Using the banknote processing systems (BPS) supplied by Germany based Giesecke&Devrient (G&D), the CBRT is a member of the BPS International Users Group, whose membership is made up of central banks and banknote printers using BPS machines and whose aims are to enable users to exchange views and experience about the use of G&D systems and to enable system updates in line with technological innovations. In 2018, the Bank sent representatives to take part in the biannual meetings of the BPS Technical Advisory Group, the technical sub-unit of the above group.
As Turkey’s representative since 2009, the CBRT participated in and contributed to BIS-hosted Committee meetings organized by the CPMI in February, June and November. The Bank also took part in the activities and meetings of working groups set up under the CPMI. In this regard, some of the working groups in which the CBRT participated published their final reports in 2018 while others continued to work on fulfilling their mission briefs. Accordingly;
The draft CBRT Payment Systems Strategy prepared in this regard was shared with participants on 7 August 2018. Taking its final form based on feedback from participants, the strategy is planned to be published in January 2019.
Both being representatives of Turkey, the CBRT and the Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) participated in the meeting of the Steering Group for the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and other workshops on 10 May 2018. Accordingly;
Being a member of the BIS-Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics (IFC), the Bank attended relevant meetings and contributed to activity reports and presentations. The Bank also helped organize the ninth International IFC Statistics Conference on “Are post-crisis statistical initiatives completed?,” participated in the writing of the final report, and became a member of the Financial Stability Subgroup initiated to work on Fintech-related data issues and took part in its activities.
As a bureau member of the OECD Task Force on Finance Statistics, the CBRT took part in its bureau meeting and activities on 5-7 November 2018.
The CBRT is a member of the European Committee of Central Balance-Sheet Data Offices (ECCBSO) created to enhance cooperation among balance sheet offices operating under European central banks, develop data processing techniques and analyses and establish comparable datasets. In 2018, the Bank took part in the working groups BACH, FSA and ERICA operating under the ECCBSO and was selected to vice-chair the FSA working group.
Being a member since 2009, the Bank actively participates in the meetings of the World Bank’s International Committee on Credit Reporting (ICCR). In 2018, its periodic meetings were held on 5-6 April in the US and on 4-5 October in Argentina. These meetings were attended by representatives mostly from central banks and from international credit reporting agencies and unions. Of the three subcommittees on “Cyber Security,” “Innovations in Credit Reporting” and “Management and Administration,” the CBRT official was selected to the last two.
On 28 August 2018, the CBRT became a member of the International Network of Exchanging Experiences on Statistical Handling of Granular Data (INEXDA) working group launched by the central banks of Italy, France, the UK, Portugal and Germany. The main goal of this working group is to develop data access methods that enable users to have access to detailed data without breaching any confidentiality regimes and, thus, help them use granular data for analytical purposes.
In terms of anti-counterfeiting, the Bank joined activities of the Pericles 2020 program initiated by the EU.
National and International Organizations
In its ongoing efforts to foster mutual relations and cooperation with other countries’ central banks and with international agencies and organizations, the CBRT conducted meetings, conferences, seminars and workshops for the discussion of current issues on the world’s and Turkey’s economic agendas.
The main events attended by the world’s leading academicians, central bank and financial industry representatives, central bankers and officials of international organizations last year are highlighted below:
CBRT Organizations
The following are meetings and seminars organized to contribute to the corporate transformation of the CBRT, foster collaboration both within and between departments and improve work processes:
National and International Organizations Attended by the Governor and Deputy Governors
Below are some meetings the CBRT participated in to represent Turkey on international platforms and to foster the exchange of ideas with economy and finance experts. The Bank also met with investor groups throughout the year:
