New York Fed Launches Innovation Hub with BIS

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has launched the New York Innovation Centre (NYIC), to advance a strategic partnership with the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub. As part of the New York Fed, the NYIC is collaborating with the Federal Reserve System, the BIS Innovation Hub, and public and private sector experts to validate, design, build, and launch new financial technology products and services for the central bank community.

“We are thrilled to announce the opening of the New York Innovation Centre,” New York Fed President John Williams says. “The work of the centre will be powered by new and different ways of thinking and experimenting, while leveraging the expertise and connections of this strategic partnership. I look forward to working with our co-collaborators as we begin to make progress on our areas of focus and collective mission.”

Agustín Carstens, BIS general manager, adds, “The strategic partnership will let the BIS Innovation Hub benefit from the Federal Reserve’s expertise in innovation, and allow us to contribute our own global perspective to the work of the New York Innovation Centre. We look forward to collaborating on projects and exchanges with the New York Innovation Centre.”

While the BIS has launched its own innovation hubs elsewhere in the world, the NYIC will work alongside the BIS Innovation Hub in pursuit of common goals. It aims to identify and develop insights on critical trends in financial technology relevant to central banks; explore the development of public goods to enhance the functioning of the global financial system; and advance and support expertise in the area of central bank innovation. This collaborative relationship leverages best practices, research, and subject matter expertise to support innovation in central banking.

To inform its activities, the NYIC will focus on five opportunity areas: supervisory and regulatory technology, financial market infrastructures, future of money, open finance, and climate risk. It will develop opportunities from concept to in-market solution and the work will be based on the venture development process, drawing on principles from entrepreneurship, venture capital, and corporate innovation to produce high-impact solutions.

The NYIC is led by Per von Zelowitz, who joined the New York Fed in July 2021 to design and lead this effort. “The NYIC represents a unique opportunity to drive innovation in collaboration with the central bank community,” he says. “I am excited to work with colleagues and partners to develop ideas and bring new products and services to the world of central banking.”