The National Bank of Ukraine held on October 29-30, 2020 an online round table "Strategic planning in central banks" with the participation of 15 central banks and regulators: Belgium, Armenia, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Germany, North Macedonia, Poland, Slovakia, Tunisia, Hungary and Sweden.
The meeting participants presented their own strategies, internal organizational processes, key goals and priority areas of work, as well as performance indicators and already achieved results of work.
The presented approaches to strategic planning had a lot in common. So the strategies of central banks are developed mainly for 3-5 years, and the strategic development function is closely related to project management and the implementation of institutional changes.
In addition to traditional goals such as ensuring price and financial stability, most central banks see digitalization, the development of educational projects and consumer protection, as well as improving internal and external communications for faster achievement of goals as strategic priorities.
Central banks are now also paying special attention to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the event participants, the coronavirus forced a significant revision of the portfolios of planned projects, including in terms of the timing of their implementation.
Separately, it is worth noting the activities of central banks aimed at the development of green lending. Most of the roundtable participants include environmental and climate change issues in their strategic plans.
During the round table, strategic planning at the National Bank of Ukraine and its key strategic documents were also presented. The path of strategic development in the National Bank is confirmed by international experience - there are fewer and fewer approaches to the directive formation of strategies, as the leading central banks involve employees of all levels in their development.
“Strategic planning as a function appeared at the National Bank in 2014 at the height of the economic crisis. This is how we gradually received our key documents - the general strategy of the National Bank, the Monetary Policy Strategy, and the Foreign Exchange Intervention Strategy. These framework documents are important for the implementation of the coherent policy of the National Bank. It was a consistent economic policy that ultimately allowed Ukraine to resume macro-financial stability and move to the stage of financial market development, ”said Oleksiy Shaban, Deputy Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine.
Today the National Bank of Ukraine is switching to the second strategic cycle - the development of the National Bank's Strategy for the next period. In parallel with the development of the NBU strategy, the implementation of the Financial Sector Development Strategy until 2025, presented in January, continues. Also, the National Bank recently presented the Fintech Development Strategy in Ukraine until 2025.
“The implementation of the Strategy of the National Bank contributes to the economic development of the country as a whole and significant progress in the development of the financial sector in particular. Moderate inflation, a decrease in interest rates on loans, the development of a cashless economy, in particular contactless payments, BankID, a stable banking system even during the crisis are the practical results of the implementation of strategic plans, "the NBU noted.
