Central Bank publishes Annual Report and Annual Performance Statement 2023

The Central Bank of Ireland has today (29 May 2024) published its Annual Report and Annual Performance Statement for 2023.

Speaking on the publication of the report, alongside a detailed blog, Governor Gabriel Makhlouf said: “The work of the Central Bank, our partners in Europe, and peers across the world to strengthen financial systems was evident in 2023 as the Irish and Euro area economies showed resilience in navigating geopolitical shocks, restrictive monetary policy and turmoil in global banking markets. 

“The benefits of the resilience built over the past decade were also seen in the real economy, which saw households and businesses weathering shocks, benefitting from lower levels of indebtedness and improved lending standards.

“Apart from the ongoing success of monetary policy and the resilience of the Irish financial system, highlights from 2023 include moving forward with our plans to develop a new cash centre, demonstrating our continued commitment to cash as a means of payment.

“Moving to the preparation phase for the Digital Euro has been an important parallel digital offering.  This is a key phase in a long-term project that will complement rather than replace existing payment systems.

“We continued to manage the rapidly-changing financial services ecosystem in Ireland with the ongoing rise in the number of payment and e-money firms, restructuring and consolidation of the credit union sector, and authorisation of over 600 funds and 10 fund service providers. 

“We published our thinking on an approach to macroprudential policy for investment funds, with a recent conference in Dublin on the same subject following significant international engagement by the Bank, and I look forward to publishing our feedback statement in the coming months.

“2023 also saw the enactment of the Central Bank Individual Accountability Framework Act.  We see it as important that the implementation of the Framework is not approached as a compliance exercise, but rather that it is internalised throughout firms’ culture, approach and practices.

“We continued our work to update and modernise the Consumer Protection Code, reflecting developments in recent years and the services and delivery channels people use today.  Informed by stakeholder views, along with research and analysis by the Bank, we published a consultation paper on our proposals in March this year.

“Research helps us to be future-focused by anticipating and responding to changes in the economy and financial system. To do so, we are increasingly moving beyond conventional analytical techniques and datasets to help answer new questions or approach existing research topics in a new way. We launched our new Research Exchange in 2023 to engage with the research community in Ireland and beyond to enhance our analytical insights and, ultimately, support the delivery of policy. 

“We launched a consultation on innovation, looking to deepen our engagement with the wider innovation ecosystem through the creation of a sandbox.  We want to support innovation in financial services while protecting consumers – a principle which remains central to everything we do.

“These developments reflect the themes of our strategy. We are shifting to a more forward-looking approach, better anticipating and more proactively responding to the profound changes underway within the economy and financial services industry. 

“We aim to strengthen public trust and understanding of the Central Bank’s role and purpose, to promote confidence in the financial system, and to foster a cultural shift in our behaviours and attitudes in relation to our stakeholders. 

“We recognise that we need to be more agile, resilient, diverse and intelligence-led and I am proud to lead an organisation that is making the changes that enable this.”

ENDS

Notes to the Editor

Read Governor Makhlouf’s blog post here

Read the full Annual Report and Annual Performance Statement here