At the end of the first half of 2024, the percentage of the annual wage bill obtained in the United States by Mexican immigrant workers that was sent to Mexico as remittances was 17.6%. In that twelve-month period, the wage bill reached 352,160 million dollars and remittances received by Mexico from the United States were 62,027 million dollars.

On Thursday, June 20, 2024, the Preparatory Meeting of the Central Bank Strategy Expert Group, organized by the Banco de España in conjunction with CEMLA, was held in digital format. The purpose of the event was the formation of the Group, establishing its work objectives and defining its operating mechanisms. It was attended by 25 representatives from nine CEMLA Associate Member central banks, one Collaborating Member and two CEMLA representatives.

CEMLA’s Directorate of Financial Stability organized V Meeting of Heads of Financial Risk Management at Central Banks. The meeting was held in hybrid format on June 5-6, 2024. The agenda included sessions and working groups activities on: i) liquidity risk and international reserves, ii) central banks’ trade-off in stress vs normal times, iii) climate-related risks, iv) risk-management governance, v) banking resolution and financial risk exposures, and vi) managing counterparty risks.

The CXVI Meeting of Governors of CEMLA Member Central Banks was held in Madrid and focused on a number of issues crucial for economic stability and development, mainly in the Latin American and Caribbean region. Participants included Central Bank Governors and officials from various CEMLA Members. Read more...

The seminar was held on May 30, 2024 at the CEMLA facilities in cooperation with Grupo Financiero BANORTE. At the event were presented the results of a study on the Mexican female emigration, mainly to the United States and Canada, and their contribution to income from remittances to Mexico.

The main results of the study were shown, which covered aspects such as female emigration, both at international and Mexican level, as well as various social and labor aspects of these migrants. The contribution of migrant women to the entry of remittances to Mexico was highlighted in the presentation.

Likewise, with information from BANORTE, a series of indicators related to remittances were reported by gender, like amount of shipments, frequency, gender of the beneficiaries of the remittances, etc. It was shown how this institution has made efforts to increase financial inclusion among remittance users.

CEMLA, in cooperation with the Statistics Department of the International Monetary Fund, organized the Advanced Course on Balance of Payments and International Investment Position that was held at its facilities in Mexico City from May 13 to 17, 2024.

The presentations reviewed concepts, data sources and statistical compilation techniques for preparing the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, as well as addressing complex methodological problems. Throughout the course, some presentations from the countries represented were made aimed at exchanging experiences. Likewise, workshops designed to integrate external sector statistics were held and concluded with an analysis of the results.

Pablo Guerrón-Quintana (Boston College), who visited CEMLA headquarters to teach a course on international macroeconomics for small open economies, delivered a seminar on Friday, May 31, 2024. At the seminar, he presented his latest work, “The Macroeconomic Implications of the AI Economy,” where he proposes a model highlighting the difference between AI and automation and exploring the implications of a growing AI sector on output, investment, and consumption in the aggregate economy.

From 27 to 31 May 2024, Pablo Guerrón-Quintana (Boston College) visited CEMLA headquarters to teach a course on international macroeconomics for small open economies. The course was offered on a hybrid basis, with in-person and online participants coming from all around CEMLA's membership.

In this course, Professor Guerrón-Quintana discussed various classes of small open economies, highlighting shortcuts to close a small-open economy model, rational bubbles, sudden stops, and models of risk and sovereign default.

CEMLA’s Directorate of Financial Stability organized the X Meeting of the Financial Information Forum of Latin American and the Caribbean Central Banks. The meeting was held in Mexico City, Mexico on May 28-29, 2024.

The meeting presented different topical issues, such as the challenge of data fragmentation in financial statistics, climate financial-related data gaps, and AI’s role in enhancing central bank statistics. The agenda, which can be consulted here, included a keynote session by Bruno Tissot, Head of Statistics and Research Support at the BIS, with the keynote address “Translating numbers into insights: effective communication of central bank data”.

The 2024 Latin American Journal of Central Banking (LAJCB) Conference took place on May 23 and 24, 2024 at CEMLA's headquarters in Mexico City. The event brought together scholars, policymakers, and professionals to discuss essential topics in central banking. Keynote Lectures were given by Allen N. Berger (University of South Carolina), David Argente (Yale University), and Eric A. Powers (University of South Carolina).

The program featured 25 research papers in 8 sessions, divided into 3 parallel sessions. The sessions covered the following subjects: monetary policy, banking, pensions, climate change, inflation dynamics, Interest Rates, credit, economic modelling, and empirical macroeconomics. A particular conference highlight was the recognition ceremony for the first-place winners of the 2023 CEMLA Central Bank Award (Central Bank Award Rodrigo Gómez).

CEMLA’s Climate Financial Risk Center organized a Capacity Building Programme on Sustainable Finance Taxonomies. This course was held in virtual format between February-April of 2024. Distributed in six sessions led by international experts in the field of sustainable finance, the course addressed the definition of sustainable finance taxonomies, their development, implementation, interoperability, and use by central banks and supervisory authorities.

The Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA) jointly organized with the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) and the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) the Financial Stability Conference: Turbulent Times, in Budapest, Hungary in March 25-26, 2024. It featured 71 participants, and 29 speakers from institutions such as the Bank of International Settlements, the International Monetary Fund, Banco de Mexico, and Banco Central del Uruguay, among others.

The conference was focused on the challenges of the current macroeconomic turbulences to financial stability, and included keynote speeches by Thorsten Beck, Professor of Financial Stability and Director of the Florence School of Banking and Finance on the current state of financial stability risks, and by Ádám Banai, the Executive Director at the MNB, on the importance of financial stability to the MBN.

The Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA) is pleased to announce that the Call for Papers for the 2024 CEMLA Central Bank Award (Central Bank Award Rodrigo Gómez) is now open.  Paper submissions are welcome until April 26, 2024, through the email address: award@cemla.org. In this edition, CEMLA will award the first place a total of 15,000 U.S. dollars, the second place, 5,000 U.S. dollars, and the third place, 2,500 U.S. dollars. This edition also contemplates granting an Honorary Mention to a maximum of 8 papers (1,000 U.S. dollars each). For more information about this Call for Papers, please visit https://www.cemla.org/centralbankaward.html.

The Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA) is pleased to announce the Call for Research Projects and Proposals for the 2024 CEMLA Joint Research Program on “The Macroeconomics of Inflation in the Post-Covid-19 Era” is now open. Throughout the 2024 Joint Research Program, participants will receive one-on-one feedback from Professors Daniel Chiquiar (ITAM) and Javier García-Cicco (Universidad de San Andrés) during the advisory meetings and will present their papers in the corresponding CEMLA Workshop. Submissions are welcome until May 10, 2024, through the email address: JointResearch@cemla.org.

The Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA) is pleased to announce the second edition of the Latin American Journal of Central Banking (LAJCB) Conference, to be held on May 23-24, 2024, at CEMLA's headquarters in Mexico City. CEMLA invites paper contributions covering topics of interest to central banking, including, but not limited to, monetary theory and policy, financial intermediation (both theory and empirics), climate-related aspects of financial stability and monetary policy, digitalization and financial markets, and payments and market infrastructures. Paper submissions are welcome until March 22, 2024, through the email address: conference@cemla.org.

The Conference is open to papers that may or may not seek to be published in the LAJCB. As with other events organized by CEMLA, this Conference offers a unique opportunity to hear about recent developments in central banking issues from leading academic scholars and policymakers. In this edition, CEMLA is delighted to announce the participation of Professors Allen N. Berger (University of South Carolina) and David Argente (Yale University) as Keynote Speakers.

CEMLA’s Directorate of Financial Stability organized the IV Central Banks Conference on Environmental Risks conference. The conference was held in hybrid format with location in Mexico City on December 14-15, 2023. The total attendees were 135 representatives .

The conference provided an overview of the policy tools available to central banks and financial supervisors for governing sustainable finance. Sharing and learning from best international practices are essential steps that contribute to the regional sustainable finance agenda. This conference brought together senior representatives from central banks and financial regulators and supervisors.