The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) has appointed former People’s Bank of China deputy governor Zhang Tao as it Asia-Pacific chief representative, making him the first Chinese to occupy a senior position in an institution dubbed the central bank of the world’s monetary authorities.
Zhang will start at the bank’s Hong Kong office on June 14, where his role will be to “strengthen and deepen cooperation between the BIS, central banks and regulatory agencies in the Asia and the Pacific,” according to a press statement.
Zhang joined the BIS from the state-owned
People’s Insurance Company of China (PICC), where he was chairman. Holding a doctorate in international economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz, Zhang was formerly the deputy managing director of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2016 to 2021, and a former deputy governor at the Chinese central bank.
“As a veteran public policymaker with ample experience in international financial institutions, Tao also has extensive knowledge in macroeconomics and central banking as well as a profound understanding of the Asia-Pacific region,” said the BIS’ general manager
Agustin Carstens. “He is very well placed to expand and deepen the BIS collaboration with regional central banks and regulatory agencies and to strengthen our operational resilience in a region that is increasingly important for the global economy and for the BIS.”
Zhang will initially work along the BIS’ regional representative Siddharth Tiwari, who will leave the bank in August, having started in the position in November 2018.
Since establishing its office in Hong Kong – the bank’s first overseas presence outside Basel, Switzerland – the BIS has stepped up its outreach with frequent reports and speeches about the latest trends in monetary policies, from
banks’ debt crisis to d
igital currencies.
It set up a BIS Innovation Hub Centre in 2019 in the city to foster international collaboration on fintech development within the central bank community, and has signed an agreement with the
Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) to identify critical trends that will have an impact on the global financial system.
One key collaboration has been on the “mBridge” project – which is the multi-central bank digital currency platform prototype being developed by the central banks of Hong Kong, China, with Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.
Initially conceived as a blockchain payment platform to
support cross-border trade settlement, the “mBridge” project has expanded last year to also include settlements related with capital market transactions.
Project participants include banks such as Goldman Sachs, DBS,
HSBC, and UBS, which worked with the BIS and the HKMA
on various use cases. These include research on how to use central bank digital currencies to support settlement for corporate bond to achieve near real-time settlement, and speeding up cross-border insurance claim payout between Chinese policy holders and Hong Kong insurance companies.
In November 2021, the BIS concluded a project with the HKMA to build digital platforms that
enable retail investors to buy and sell tokenised green bonds. If successful, it would enable them to track the actual carbon dioxide emission reduction on the blockchain by the projects financed by the bond.
“The HKMA is a global leader in promoting innovation, and Hong Kong is home to a vibrant fintech ecosystem. The HKMA’s involvement will be a key driver of the Hub’s success,”
Carstens said in August 2019.
