XVIII Meeting on Accounting and Budgetary Aspects of Central Banking

For several years, CEMLA has been organizing this important meeting in response to a request from the CEMLA Accounting Committee, to carry out activities for discussion and exchange of experiences on issues relevant to the accounting and budget staff of the central banks of the region.

The Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA) held in digital format the “XVIII Meeting on Accounting and Budgetary Aspects of Central Banking” from May 4 to 6, 2022. The Meeting was aimed at those responsible for the accounting areas and the budget areas of the Central Banks associated with CEMLA and other invited institutions with the purpose of providing a forum for the discussion, exchange of experiences and regional perspectives on recent developments, in accounting and budgeting of the Central Banks of the region. The program of the meeting includes the following topics: post-pandemic experiences and challenges for accounting and budgeting in the Central Banking of LAC; application of IAS 29 and the adjustment for inflation; analysis of the implications of a positive equity and a possible distribution of surpluses; as well as innovations in digital accounting (CBDCs), planning and budgeting in Central Banking. Therefore, this event provides a forum to analyze how to face the challenges for accounting and budgeting in the current scenario. Each day of the event provides a forum to analyze and discuss accounting and budgeting aspects to be addressed in the short, medium and long term.

Day 1

The first session focused on Post-pandemic experiences and challenges for accounting and budgeting in the Central Banks of Latin America and the Caribbean. It was mentioned that, after the pandemic, emerging strategies related to business continuity plans were implemented. Business, internal governance and remote work, among others, had a direct effect on the Bank's Accounting and budget, such as: activation of the Continuity and Crisis Communication Plans; development of collaborative tools for teleworking; activation of security controls related to cybersecurity threats and associated risks; redistribution of funds and acquisition of resources to increase remote work (computers, remote connection platforms, mobile communication, etc.); and implementation of care and assistance protocols for employees affected by COVID-19.

The central bank also implemented expansionary monetary measures in a timely manner aimed at providing liquidity at low interest rates for the benefit and support of the productive sectors and households; reduced the monetary policy interest rate; cash withdrawals were made in correspondent banks abroad, to bring them into the country and place them in the local market (importation of US dollars); among other strategies.

The extension of the pandemic and its more than transitory and almost long-term impact, combined with new events of a quasi-global nature such as the war situation in Ukraine, poses important effects on issues for the Central Bank.

As for the future challenges, there are the following: Identify activities and changes in temporary processes during the pandemic, which were proven to be efficient, to include them in the updating of current procedures and regulations; the incremental costs of carrying out the design of strategies and projects, as well as those associated with monetary policy decisions; resuming activities, projects and implementations that were postponed; persistent inflation that affects operating and investment expense budgets; and higher labor turnover in key areas for a central bank, such as technology (cybersecurity).

The second country to participate focused on post-pandemic challenges, mentioning the budget restriction at the bank level and the parameters to stay within organic growth, as well as the limits or restrictions for the different budget items. Among the learnings is to implement work models compatible with quarantines and social distancing by adapting to remote work, the implementation of a set of computer programs, performing hybrid work and taking care of people. One important learning was raising awareness among the population through: adjustments to the incentive system for compliance with budget planning; the Savings concept was established in order to encourage budget management and efficiency in the use of resources; the monitoring and reporting scheme was strengthened; A Budget Execution Report was prepared in Power Bi, delivered monthly, to keep the areas informed about the progress of its execution; and digital channels were created in Teams to reinforce communication with the areas, raise awareness of the requirements, provide fluidity to communication and make self-consultation material available on a permanent basis.

Another learning was the projection of scenarios, for which a short-term projection (1 year) was initiated, performing a quarterly review of deviations, and direct contact was made with the areas for the return of resources whenever necessary and at the same time being questioners. Whether the area has savings or a gap and wants to make another expense, they question it about why it was not included in the original budget, and at the same time being flexible given the volatile environment in which we find ourselves. In 2022 became necessary to make clear that the higher expenses of the pandemic would not be absorbed by savings, since a return to normality was projected, in terms of travel and face-to-face training, so these types of scenarios were included in the different budget processes, and it was very positive to support the decision making of the senior management.

Regarding the challenges, the following were displayed: promote flexibility in organizations; include budget reprioritization mechanisms during the year and evaluate working with reserve or contingency funds; all of this without generating a loss of credibility in the initial budget process.

The first country of the second session was in charge of explaining the Application of IAS 29 and adjustment for inflation, in a homogeneous way for the financial statements; the speaker´s country has extensive experience in living with inflation and the inflation adjustment has been applied since 1984, but the balance sheet was applied to companies until 2003; the inflation adjustment rules were suspended by law, so the bank adhered to these practices when it was in force. The increase on inflation meant that the balance of the companies expressed in pesos did not have the economic reality, they could not be comparable due to the effect of inflation, then, the Argentine accounting profession influenced the government to explain that it was necessary to go back to allow adjustment for accounting inflation.

Since 2018, by law it is established that the adjustment for accounting inflation is applied again. For the year 2020, IFRS 29 explains that regulations indicate that balance sheet items must be divided into monetary items and non-monetary items, monetary accounting accounts are those that are kept in cash, they are assets and liabilities where they are going to receive fixed monetary units and inflation has an impact on them. Non-monetary items are those whose nominal value varies according to the behavior of inflation, which is why, derived from said inflation, they do not have an impairment in their value; these can be assets, liabilities, capital and results.

Until 2018, the adjustment for inflation was not applied, and the central bank established for financial entities that the adjustment for inflation would be made following certain characteristics following IFRS 29, but the Superintendence of Banks established that there were disclosures that were not going to be adopted, so the central bank for its financial statements adopted the same methodology as the superintendency and this is what was set for banks as of January 1, 2020.

The next country in the second session explained that in its central bank the Organic Charter provides that the Institution's Capital is set at an amount denominated in indexed units. This unit of account, which evolves according to the Consumer Price Index - General Level, which is the same one used to adjust for inflation in the bank means that, curiously, there is an item within equity that is already expressed in definite purchasing power currency.

Although the income statements are adjusted by retrofitting the items, that is, adjusting each item of the ledger from the time it occurs until the end of the year, thus converting the movements to the currency of said date, the difference exchange is a special case.

In the case of exchange differences, it was considered more precise to subtract from the result recorded every day, the part that corresponds to the deterioration of the currency, distinguishing this part from the real variation of the exchange rates or values ​​of said units. The adjustment arises from the comparison between the differences generated by the variation in the exchange rate and those that would be generated by the monthly positions adjusted by the CPI. This is done by valuing the average monthly positions of each one of the currencies and units of account that generate exchange or similar results at the end and beginning of each month. The amount at the beginning of the period is revalued by the variation in the price index for the month, and this is compared with the valuation at the end of the month, the difference between the two being the real exchange difference at calculated values ​​for the month. To take this difference to balance date values, the month-to-month aging is performed by the variation in the price index.

Day 2

The third session studied the topic of analysis of a positive accounting patrimony and a possible distribution of surpluses in the case of the Central Bank of Chile (BCCh), where it was commented that the bank is a state institution whose mission is to ensure the stability of the currency; to meet its objectives, it has among its faculties the power to regulate the amount of money in circulation and credit in the economy (monetary policy), and in international matters, maintain, manage and dispose of international reserves; the Central Bank was created in 1925 and in 1989 through the Constitutional Organic Law it was granted autonomy. That is, it enjoys complete independence from the Government in decision-making and in all its tasks, which guarantees that it can carry out its work free from political conjunctural pressures; the highest authority of the Institution is the Council that directs, manages and makes decisions on monetary policy, financial regulation and foreign exchange. It is made up of five economists whose appointment arises from a proposal by the President of the Republic that must be ratified by the Senate (Legislative Power).

As legal background, there is article 75, which indicates that it corresponds to the Council, following a favorable report from the Superintendence of Banks and Financial Institutions (current Commission for the Financial Market), to dictate the regulations related to the requirements and general conditions that the states must comply with. The financial statements of the Bank are contained in the document called “Criteria for presentation and preparation of financial reports of the Central Bank of Chile”. The operations carried out by the central bank based on its powers and objectives determine the financial situation of the entity (balance sheet structure); accounting policies determine when income is recognized and when it is incorporated in the calculations of the distribution scheme; the distribution and capitalization policies are those that establish the criteria for the distribution of profits. IFRS does not provide specific guidelines for this.

For central banks, the main sources of volatility come from unrealized revaluations arising from price movements of their holdings in foreign financial instruments (international reserves), and from exchange rate movements. The latter correspond to the most critical focus on those central banks that maintain international reserves on their balance sheets, given the large open position in foreign currency that stems from it. The bank's balance sheet is composed of assets denominated mainly in foreign currency and liabilities denominated mostly in national currency. Until 2020, the Bank presented negative equity and capital to be paid higher than initially defined, with a very distant figure to pay its initial capital; this currency mismatch determines that the exchange results (valuation of positions in foreign currency) determine the result of each fiscal year.

Session four studied the topic of positive equity and surpluses distribution in the case of the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB), where it was explained that the result of the Central Bank is the product of the equity structure. Interest rates are higher than external interest rates, and this volatility of exchange rates comes with the growth of international reserves in most countries after the crises of 2005, 2008 and also with covid-19; the impact of the exchange rate is very negative, and also the impact of the variation in the value of the bonds, that are part of the international reserve, brings a very large volatility to the bank's result, which is a mix of realized and unrealized income and loss and high volatility.

As of 2017, the guidelines for the new institutional design are created, such as: reduction of financial flow between BCB and Treasury; transfer only of the realized result; equity cannot be negative; minimum level for net worth and automatic recomposition of the bond portfolio for monetary policy; already in 2019, the implementation of the new legislation that determines a new treatment for the bank's results that considers all the profits and losses in accordance with IFRS. In a positive result, it constitutes a reserve for the value of the result of international reserves and the surplus is transferred to the Treasury; in negative result, it is charged against reserve of results, and if it’s not enough, capital reduction and then the Treasury covers an eventual difference.

Session 5 analyzed the alternative view on positive patrimony and surplus distributions in the case of the Central Bank of Spain, where it was commented that the factors that facilitate the achievement of its objectives are credibility and independence, where the concept of credibility is very important because the public must be made to believe that the central bank will be able to meet its objectives, that it will have an influence on the expectations of agents, largely determining the success or failure of monetary policies.

To achieve credibility, the Central Bank must be independent, increase transparency (explain its actions sufficiently in advance so that agents can incorporate them into their expectations), comply with what has been announced and be able to keep inflation under control. On the other hand, the independence of the central bank is essential for the execution of the monetary policy to be credible, the control of inflation is carried out more adequately if the central bank is independent.

The existence of losses causes the net worth to become negative with unfavorable consequences as a form of uncontrolled injection of liquidity; if the Central Bank finds itself in a situation that structurally generates losses, the effects can become harmful, and the continued losses can lead to the central bank having to monetize them, limiting its ability to exercise monetary policy. In addition, showing a balance in which the deposits of entities/banknotes are used to finance losses can undermine their credibility.

Day 3

In session 6, the topic of innovations in digital accounting (CBDCs), comprehensive planning, project prioritization and budgeting in central banking was presented. In this session, the first speaker talked about the importance of legal aspects with his country's own particularities. Thus, in the country, article No. 5 says: the institutions belonging to the Official Banking System, will annually submit their Budget and Action Plan for approval by the National Executive Power, in the time, form and conditions established for that purpose; and Article No. 15 says: as the bank's governing body, the board of directors is responsible for: Preparing and submitting for approval, before September 30 of each year, the annual budget of expenses, the calculation of resources and the salaries of the bank's staff.

The main characteristics are: budgeting is a programming process based on policies and objectives; at the  Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA), the budget is only for expenses, as it does not include income; the dependencies must prepare their action plan, which will support their budget; three-year budget: mandatory formulation of the budget for the following year, optional for the two subsequent years; budget by project: there is a classification by project, to identify common expenses; budget by item: it is formulated by budget item, according to the national manual of budget classifications; budget by module: "Annual Purchasing Plan" module (PAC - contracting to promote) and "Expenses" module (current contracting and other expenses, not managed via Contracting, such as travel, training, minor expenses, etc.).

Regarding the budget process, there is a formulation that begins in June and is a cross-cutting process throughout the bank that involves all areas and makes the area that conducts and administers the entire process hold specific meetings and training, once each area approved its own projection of expenses for the following year, a discussion process takes place where the expenses planned for the following year are analyzed and finally a final version is prepared for approval by the Board of Directors; then, the execution is carried out and finally all the closing operations and the rendering of accounts is carried out, the whole process is accompanied by a follow-up, reports are submitted to the authority and every six months to the Board of Directors.

All the participating dependencies, called planning dependencies, are all the areas of the bank that wish to have their own expense budget, to meet various needs in the contracting of goods and/or services; there are also distribution agencies, which are areas in charge of centralizing the expenses (or procedures) inherent to the contracting of certain goods and/or services; there is a budget area that is a dependency that manages the process formulation, enters adjustments, prepares charts and submits elevation for approval by the Board of Directors.

The following country shared their experience on innovation and CBDC Real Digital; the issue of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) has caught the attention of the global central banking community. An important part of the central banks has been studying, exploring or testing projects and operational and technological aspects of a CBDC system, and most of the countries consider that CBDCs have the potential to improve the efficiency of the retail payments market and to promote competition and financial inclusion, particularly for the population that still does not have banking services. In fact, the pandemic crisis highlighted the importance of digital payment instruments reaching the most vulnerable and affected segments of the population; there are three types of “practical” applications, observed internationally: wholesale payments (Europe, Singapore, Switzerland); instant payments (Bahamas, China, Sweden); and promotion of new business models (Brazil, Canada, Korea).

According to the Joint Report (BIS) on CBDC, the development of a CBDC requires central banks and other public authorities to make design decisions and decide related trade-offs; there will be no “one size fits all” CBDC; national priorities and internal circumstances will determine the designs; the issuance and design of CBDCs is a sovereign decision of each jurisdiction based on an assessment of how the CBDC could support public policy objectives through the provision of a secure means of payment; a CBDC could promote more resilient, efficient, inclusive and innovative payments; the potential financial stability implications of CBDCs should be carefully considered; CBDC issuance has cross-border implications.

The Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) has been following the evolution of the CBDC discussion for some years and, in August 2020, created a working group to carry out studies on the possibility of a Brazilian digital currency, preliminary results were presented to the Board of Directors of the BCB, which determined the establishment of an ordinary forum with the following purposes: definition of the Guidelines for the Digital Brazilian Real, which were published in May 2021; conducting a series of webinars to discuss the possible applications of a digital Brazilian Real with society, experts, representatives of the financial market and academics and the promotion of the Lift Challenge, where the BCB presents a specific challenge for the development of a minimally viable product, then a set of projects is selected and a follow-up forum is promoted during the challenge period, and all interested parties make commitment agreements and in a period of 4 months the progress of the project is monitored and the results will be presented to society.

The next participating country touched on the topic of comprehensive planning, project prioritization and budgeting in central banking in the current situation, the comprehensive and operational planning model. At present, the planning processes are executed individually and separately, in different times of the year and without adequate coordination. The inconveniences for the business areas are repeated requests from the planners, making it difficult for them to plan their activities and the resources necessary to develop them in an orderly manner; on the other hand, for the current resource planning departments in an independent and uncoordinated manner, they do not take advantage of the synergies that would be obtained by sharing information.

The inconveniences for the governing bodies are that they receive incomplete and fragmented information, which prevents them from having a global vision of all the projects that are proposed and of the resources necessary to address them, in some cases there is no prioritization criteria that allows selecting the initiatives that add more value to the bank, and in some plans priority is given in order of arrival of requests and in others by availability of resources to deal with them, but not always because of their contribution to the bank's interests in comprehensive planning.

To mitigate the drawbacks, a comprehensive planning model was created with the following requirements: simple to implement (avoids unnecessary administrative burdens on the areas); flexible and agile (provides quick response to unplanned urgent needs); and, evolutionary (it pursues essential objectives by trying to keep the initiative as simple as possible). The objectives of this model are: to integrate and coordinate the different plans; to promote orderly and rational planning and to provide complete information to the governing bodies on the total cost of projects that facilitate decision-making, to make the best possible use of available resources.

Regarding the benefits, there are the following: for the areas of the bank there is a single request for information, there is flexibility, and the system is complemented by the new Dynamic Demand Management Plan. For the planning departments, there is a rationalization of the planning processes, and the planners share useful information and can avoid inconsistencies between the different plans. For the Bank's Management, information is provided on relevant initiatives that the General Managements want to undertake, with their costs and benefits, and the decision is facilitated by identifying those that add value in the face of doubtful business cases.

For the operation, a list of all the initiatives that the General Directorates want to implement and that need resources is required, where the objectives pursued by each one of them are collected, as well as the benefits for the bank and the order of priority for the Directorate. In general, it is also required to know the resources necessary to carry them out, namely: staff needs, computer needs and external services.

In session 7, Digitization of accounting documentation, the speaker focused on the electronic management of accounting documentation and mentioned that the electronic management project was launched in 2018 with the aim of allowing the electronic storage of accounting documentation and its management, eliminating its physical files and the result obtained is greater efficiency in the management of accounting documentation, with an impact on other aspects of the institution. Some of the general aspects of the bank's accounting system are as follows: the accounting system is developed internally, the managing Departments are in charge of the accounting records of their operations and the accounting entries are subsequently audited by the Department of General Intervention; as a general rule, the entries are generated in a mechanized way by the operating computer systems in charge of processing the operations.

The accounting documentation is the list of the entry (identification data, accounts, amounts) and documents that justify the reality and correctness of the operation, such as electronic lists generated by the operational applications, documents prepared with end user tools (any Microsoft Office document, such as Excel and Word documents, or emails, which need to be converted to PDF format), other PDF documents (electronic invoices, Swift messages), and physical documentation that requires manual scanning (paper invoices, checks).

For the implementation procedure of the electronic accounting documentation management procedure, the internal regulations were drawn up to support the new procedure and it was implemented progressively, with staggered incorporation of the different bank applications that generate accounting entries, and in the transitional phase in which seats in electronic format coexisted with seats in physical format. The current situation is that documents with legal value are kept on paper (paper invoices and documents with a handwritten signature). The consultation of electronic documents in this way is much simpler and faster and the possibility of sending the files with the entry and all its documentation to the user's mailbox has been implemented, which in the case of audits greatly facilitates the work. The current situation is guaranteed digitization where electronic copies with full validity and legal guarantee are generated from original paper documents.

Session 8 explained the application of IFRS 16 on leases in institutions. IFRS 16 came to replace IFRS 17 where, from the lessor's point of view, there were no such strong changes and the figure of the operating lease and the lease continue to exist. Where there were changes was from the point of view of the accounting by the lessee since, in general terms, there is no such bifurcation of whether it is operational or financial but rather the concept of right of use appears, and now the central issue is whether or not there is a lease, and if there is a lease it should be accounted for as a right of use.

There are a couple of exceptions when the rule is implemented, and what is said is whether there are leases that are granted that are short-term or twelve months or that are low-value leases, although the rule does not give the reference of a punctual amount in the body of the norm. The analysis of the documents was carried out by the different auditing firms. From the tenant's point of view, the first thing is to evaluate whether or not there is a lease and for that control issues must be seen, how much the property that can be disposed of, controlled or modified, in order to be able to separate it and know if it is an asset in control or the right to use an asset, or if it is basically a contract for the use of a good or the right to receive a service and this is what indicates whether or not it is a lease; basically a lease exists when the right to control the use of the identified asset is transferred for a certain time in exchange for a consideration.

In the practical part, all the contracts had to be reviewed as an expense for rent, to identify if they contained a lease; the deadlines were determined, a low-value asset policy was made, operational and process adjustments were made, as well as adjustments in tax systems and effects that this item was going to have. Additionally, the interest rate was considered to discount the cash flows and at what term, who provides the rate and the VAT accounting treatment was analyzed. Considerations when applying the standard are the term of depreciation, the separation of components such as maintenance and useful life, and whether the recording of the asset may be duplicated for both parties.

Session 9 reviewed the statistical analysis of the CEMLA survey on Accounting and Budgetary Aspects of Central Banking, which analyzed issues that CEMLA´s Central Banking Accounting Committee launched to the CEMLA´s membership through a survey with the aim of analyzing developments and challenges in accounting matters and budget for the central banks of the region. 15 central banks participated: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Curacao and Sint Maarten, Ecuador, Spain, Honduras, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Switzerland, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay.

Said central banks answered several questions corresponding to the legal regime and main functions of the Central Bank, accounting framework, organizational structure and support of the accounting area, specific accounting criteria and equity, distribution of results, recapitalization and budget.