Winners of Central Banking Awards 2023

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), National Bank of Poland (NBP) and Note Printing Australia (NPA) were winners in three of the 25 Central Banking Awards 2023, which were announced recently.

The Central Bank of the Year Award went to the NBU in recognition of its extraordinary achievements in keeping the country’s financial system going under exceptional strains, and managing to finance Ukraine’s defence while maintaining a large measure of macroeconomic stability.

The NBU had been preparing for war ever since Russia annexed the Crimea region and supported separatist rebels in the east in 2014, planning for every contingency that might be faced in wartime, including cyber security, currency support, banking stability and the safety of staff. Contingency planning was stepped up in the latter half of 2021 and early 2022 when it became apparent that a full-scale invasion was likely.

The Currency Manager of the Year Award was made jointly to the NBP and NBU for their cash exchange programme that has helped some of the nearly 10 million Ukrainian refugees that crossed into Poland following the invasion exchange their hryvnias into zlotys with no penalties.

A detailed description of the NBU’s measures to keep cash flowing, and the exchange agreement between it and the NBP, can be viewed in the February issue of Currency News™.

The Currency Services Award, meanwhile, went to NPA for its strategic collaboration with Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to produce notes for the ongoing pilot of a polymer version of the 1,000 piso in the Philippines.

The agreement with BPS was signed in late 2021 to produce the notes, 10 million of which were introduced into circulation in April 2022 alongside the existing paper version. By June this year, 500 million polymer notes will have been issued, some half of all 1,000 piso notes in circulation. The purpose of the trial is to establish the economic and environmental case for, as well as public reaction to, the alternative substrate.