Yesterday the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) announced that Pablo Hernández de Cos will take on the role of BIS General Manager on 1 July 2025. The former Governor of the Bank of Spain will replace Agustín Carstens whose term ends in June. Recognizing the increasing digitalization of finance, Mr Carstens has advocated for an innovation agenda. During his term the BIS launched the network of BIS Innovation Hubs around the world. He has also promoted the concept of a Unified Ledger, tokenization and the Finternet.
The BIS has launched Project Agorá, an initiative involving seven central banks and over 40 institutions, aiming to modernize correspondent banking and cross border payments using tokenization. When it unveiled the project, it highlighted that this was not just another BIS Innovation Hub experiment. While it won’t commit to launching given the early stage, it’s taking the project very seriously.
So it would be hard to imagine another BIS leader leaning into innovation quite to the same extent as Mr Carstens. We were curious about the likelihood of the new BIS leader picking up the baton.
Article continues …
Want the full story? Pro subscribers get complete articles, exclusive industry analysis, and early access to legislative updates that keep you ahead of the competition. Join the professionals who are choosing deeper insights over surface level news.
