Bank for International Settlements – BIS

At the Istanbul Economic Forum, BIS General Manager Pablo Hernández de Cos took part in a fireside chat moderated by Fatih Karahan, Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye. The discussion explored how central banks are adapting to a more uncertain economic and geopolitical environment, marked by more frequent and severe supply shocks as well as by complex interactions between public finances, non-bank financial intermediaries and technology: • Central banks are regularly assessing how to best communicate their policy frameworks and actions while preserving the flexibility to respond to changing conditions. • Robustness, flexibility and realism remain essential principles for safeguarding price stability amid geopolitical tensions, supply shocks and uncertainty about the evolution of productivity and the natural rate of interest. • More frequent or larger supply disruptions require careful consideration on when supply shocks can be looked through. • High public debt, rising debt servicing costs and the growing role of non-bank financial institutions require closer monitoring of sovereign bond markets and related financial vulnerabilities. • Central banks’ backstops to address market dysfunction must be carefully calibrated and clearly communicated. The discussion underscored the importance of a system-wide perspective and of coordinated action to safeguard monetary and financial stability in a changing global environment.

Join the discussions on the future of finance at DC Fintech Week, taking place in Washington, DC, from 13–16 October. This year’s programme will explore the technologies and policy questions shaping the next era of finance – including agentic AI, tokenised markets, digital identity, financial inclusion, compliance at machine speed and post-quantum risks. BIS speakers will contribute to discussions on: - Tiered know-your-customer (KYC), digital identity and privacy, with Ulf Lewrick - Fintech, tokenisation and the financing gap for small businesses, with Jan Paulick They will join leading voices from the public and private sectors, academia, civil society and the technology community for candid dialogue on the opportunities and challenges facing the international financial system. Now in its ninth year, DC Fintech Week is a forum for policymakers, financial institutions, fintech innovators and researchers to engage across disciplines and borders. BIS is pleased to contribute to the programme alongside The Fintech Foundation and The World Bank Group. Register and explore the full programme: https://bit.ly/4yCUOGx We hope to see you there.

Tao Zhang, BIS Chief Representative for Asia and the Pacific, participated in a panel discussion on deepening India’s capital markets at the Kautilya Economic Conclave 2026, organised by the Institute of Economic Growth and the Ministry of Finance, India. In relation to emerging market economies in Asia including India, Mr Zhang highlighted that financial intermediation was becoming more diverse, that the growing role of non-bank financial institutions had important implications for financial stability and that technology was transforming the way financial markets operated. Such developments had strong and broad implications for the deepening of capital markets in Asia, requiring elements such as strong institutional foundations, a diverse investor base, evolving regulations and continuous learning from international experience, he said. The BIS contributes to meeting such needs by providing a forum for central banks and other authorities to exchange views and experience, supporting analytical work and facilitating collaboration and shared learning.

Central banks will always play a critical role in managing financial crises, but changes in the economic and financial landscape can pose new challenges and require adaptations, Pablo Hernández de Cos said, delivering the SUERF Annual Lecture in Vienna. Speaking at a conference organised by the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, SUERF - The European Money & Finance Forum, the Joint Vienna Institute and the Yale Program on Financial Stability; Master's Program in Systemic Risk, he outlined lessons from the financial crises of the last two decades and laid out possible challenges ahead: • The experience of recent crises has underlined the importance of timely intervention to prevent market dysfunction from threatening financial and price stability. • Developments in fiscal policy, financial markets and innovation could make this task more challenging. • High public debt and a growing footprint of non-banks in sovereign debt has strengthened the link between government bond market functioning, fiscal risk and financial stability, which can complicate the central bank’s role in crisis management. • Digital innovation may further accelerate liquidity stress and the speed at which central banks must intervene. • Central bank backstops remain critical, but designing their calibration, governance and eventual exit remains challenging. Central banks have a key role to play in addressing the challenges, but so do regulators and governments, he said. Fiscal discipline, congruent, or equivalent, regulation for banks and non-banks, and careful design and communication of central bank backstops are all key. Global cooperation – the central tenet of the BIS – remains essential, on setting appropriate standards, maintaining swap lines and exchanging information. Read the speech at https://bit.ly/4dmS2g5

Member jurisdictions of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision made further progress in implementing the Basel III reforms, according to the Committee’s latest progress update. The update and monitoring dashboard set out the jurisdictional adoption status of the Basel III standards as of end-September 2026 and show where the standards are already implemented by banks. They cover the final elements of Basel III published by the Committee in December 2017 and the finalised minimum capital requirements for market risk of January 2019. The implementation date for these reforms was 1 January 2023, as announced by the Governors and Heads of Supervision (GHOS) – the Basel Committee’s oversight body – in March 2020. As of 30 September 2026, three quarters of the member jurisdictions have published their rules adopting the final Basel III reforms. The revised credit risk and operational risk standards, as well as the output floor, are already effective in around 85% of the member jurisdictions. Looking ahead, almost all member jurisdictions have publicly announced that banks must apply Basel III by April 2027 or earlier. The monitoring dashboard provides the implementation history of Basel standards by member jurisdictions, including the publication and implementation dates of their domestic regulations. Read more here: https://bit.ly/3C5GNFi #BaselCommittee #Supervision #BaselIII

Meet Patrick McGuire, Head of the Secretariat for the Markets Committee, a forum where central bank officials exchange views on current market conditions, market functioning and central bank operations. Over his 23-year career at the BIS, Patrick has helped shape statistical collections covering international banking and derivatives markets, while highlighting their policy relevance through the BIS Quarterly Review. 📖 Discover more about Patrick’s work in this year’s Annual Report: https://bit.ly/45vgaZk #MeetOurPeople #BISAnnualReport

A large share of investment relationships in AI is circular. Approximately 55% of the investment that AI firms received between 2021 and 2025 came from other AI firms. In 16% of intra-AI investment deals, the firms also shared a commercial relationship. In a new BIS Bulletin, Jon Frost , Rudraksh Kansal, Kumar Rishabh, Vatsala Shreeti and Leanne (Si Ying) Zhang map circular investment relationships between AI firms. Such relationships can help firms secure scare inputs and overcome information gaps. But they also make it harder to separate organic demand from self-financed sales. Moreover, they can increase correlations between firms’ commercial and financial exposure, potentially amplifying spillovers in case of stress. Read more here: https://bit.ly/4z6pLTg

Almost 300 central bankers and banking supervisors representing more than 60 jurisdictions met on 30 September–1 October 2026 in Bali, Indonesia, for the 24th International Conference of Banking Supervisors (ICBS). The ICBS, which was hosted by Bank Indonesia and the Indonesian Financial Services Authority, was a timely opportunity for participants to exchange views and insights on the future of banking supervision and the implications of the ongoing digitalisation of finance. Erik Thedéen, Chair of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and Governor of Sveriges riksbank, delivered a keynote speech on strong and modern supervision. The Basel Committee met earlier in the week, on 28–29 September 2026. During the meeting, the Committee: - Exchanged experiences and views on developments in artificial intelligence for the global banking system and supervisors, modernisation efforts and implications for the Committee’s future work programme. - Approved the annual assessment exercise for global systemically important banks and revisions to reduce year-end window-dressing behaviour, as well as the final standard for machine-readable Pillar 3 disclosures. - Agreed to consult on additional Pillar 2 guidance on interest rate risk in the banking book and to provide an update on its targeted review of its prudential standard for banks’ exposures to cryptoassets by the end of the year. To learn more about this week’s events and about the Basel Committee’s mandate and activities: https://bit.ly/4ypgQfz https://bit.ly/4xP6Jjn https://bit.ly/4rEntYW #BaselCommittee #BankingSupervision

Tao Zhang, BIS Chief Representative for Asia and the Pacific, joined a panel on artificial intelligence (AI) at the Asia New Vision Forum – Innovation 2026 forum organised by Caixin Global in Singapore. His remarks covered use cases of AI in the financial and central banking sectors as well as the importance of safeguarding against cyber risks arising from new technologies. Mr Zhang highlighted the limitations of AI and its struggle with logical reasoning and judgement, suggesting AI should complement rather than replace human expertise. To responsibly harness AI in the central banking arena, high-quality data coupled with sound governance, the appropriate technical skills among employees and global cooperation among central banks were key priorities. In this context, the BIS could play a crucial role by fostering a community of practice among central banks, enabling them to share experiences and learn from one another.

Strong supervision and modern supervision are not competing objectives but reinforce each other and are both necessary to preserve trust, resilience and economic prosperity, Basel Committee on Banking Supervision Chair Erik Thedéen said on Wednesday. Addressing the 24th International Conference of Banking Supervisors, which gathers over 130 central bankers and banking supervisors representing more than 60 jurisdictions, Thedéen said strong regulation does not make strong supervision less important. “A ratio tells us where a bank stands at a particular moment; it is a snapshot. But supervision is the film. Supervision asks how it got there, where it may be heading and how it is likely to respond when conditions change,” he said. For its part, modernisation should free supervisors to think and support them in investing in the capabilities required to deal with an ever changing banking system. “Supervision therefore needs to modernise to become more forward-looking without becoming speculative, more data-driven without becoming data-dependent, and faster without becoming careless.” Read the full speech at https://bit.ly/4xP6Jjn