The Bank for International Settlements has appointed Riksbank's Cecilia Skingsley as head of the BIS Innovation Hub.
Skingsley, currently first deputy governor of the Swedish central bank, will join the BIS in September for a five-year term, replacing Benoît Cœuré, who was appointed president of France's Competition Authority in January.
Established in 2019 to support exploratory work into new frontiers in financial technology, the BIS Innovation Hub has centres in Hong Kong, London, Singapore, Stockholm and Switzerland. Another two centres, in Frankfurt/Paris and Toronto, are set to open this year.
The hub's projects focus on priority themes such as central bank digital currencies (CBDC), next-generation financial market infrastructures, supervisory and regulatory technology, open finance, cyber security and green finance.
Sverige Riksbank is further along the curve than most central banks in exploring the feasibility of a CBDC and Skingsley has played a pivotal role in advancing key international initiatives directed towards the development of CBDCs.