iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

"What's that on the desk?" "Oh, just a letter from Jay Powell. We get a lot of those."

Letter from Jerome Powell thanking Central Banking for his Governor of the Year award

Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Super interesting FSB report out today with data on the repo market. Check out those haircuts - nearly three quarters at zero and 7% negative. Fill yer boots, as much leverage as you like! www.fsb.org/uploads/P040...

Charts showing that most non-centrally cleared repos take place without haircuts

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Central banks really like gold right now. Chart from Arslanalp, Eichengreen, and Simpson-Bell www.nber.org/papers/w34478

Chart showing sustained climb in central bank gold holdings from around 2010 to 2025, after a long decline from a peak in the 1960s.

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Love Louise Hayward's etchings of London. Here's one we have of scaffolding on Trellick Tower

Scaffolding on Trellick Tower, a print by Louise Hayward, framed and on the wall of my flat.

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Fun pullquote in this story on central bankers' legal immunity www.centralbanking.com/benchmarking...

Pullquote with the text "It's bloody difficult to sue the Bank of England for anything", a quote from John Gieve, former BoE deputy governor

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

See also our interview with CNB governor Boris Vujcic, who discusses the issue of stablecoins moving freely when their reserves do not.

Then it’s also a question of whether, for example, it’s a third-party co-issuance stablecoin, like you had in France with Circle. The challenge there is that we must be careful about the regulatory arbitrage because regulation is not the same everywhere. If you do coin issuances that are fungible and where you have a guarantee to use a product in the same way wherever you are in the world, then we must be sure that the reserves could also move freely. For example, in Europe, we have favourable legislation that guarantees you can get redemptions quickly. So, if there is a run, people might run in Europe, rather than somewhere else, because of regulatory reasons. This is all a little speculative at present, as the business has not grown significantly enough yet. But we have to be careful and guard against unwanted consequences before they become unmanageable.

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

What if monetary policy isn't actually all that tight? Interesting BIS paper covered here by @thomas-chow.bsky.social - a new monetary conditions index tries to capture effect of balance sheet size in a more nuanced way than the shadow rate www.centralbanking.com/central-bank...

Chart from BIS paper showing monetary conditions index (MCI) is substantially lower than the policy rate and estimates of the shadow rate.

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Today is the day I let my 950 day streak studying Ukrainian lapse. До побачення to the owl. In the end you were just too much of a pain in the arse, Duo. Also the Ukrainian course is pretty short and massively unhelpful at explaining the (v complicated!) grammar. Time for some book learning I think

A flaming owl in sunglasses celebrating the 950 day streak I reached on Monday. Today I ran out of streak freezes and also patience with Duolingo's shortcomings

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

We published our first strategic planning benchmark report today. One of many findings is that nearly everyone is working on digital transformation and payments reform. But AI is not really showing up in plans yet. www.centralbanking.com/benchmarking...

Chart showing that over 85% of central banks include digital transformation and payment systems in their strategic plans. Forecasting, AI and evolving mandate are the least common options (all <40%)

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

One of many bits that resonates:

But if I’m honest, that kid was working harder than I am. He was so much more scared than I am, which means he was being so much braver. Fiercely intent on learning and growing, in a way I could only dream of being now.

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

One more note on access to cash - our benchmarking data shows mandatory acceptance laws are pretty widespread, appearing in over 50% of the 38 jurisdictions that supplied data. Just not the UK. www.centralbanking.com/benchmarking...

Chart showing extent of access to cash policies (in 46.9% of jurisdictions), commercial bank cash mandates (43.8%) and mandatory cash acceptance at retailers (54.3%)

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Facebook and Instagram are indeed bad for you www.nber.org/papers/w33697

Title: The Effect of Deactivating Facebook and Instagram on Users’ Emotional State

Abstract: We estimate the effect of social media deactivation on users’ emotional state in two large randomized experiments before the 2020 U.S. election. People who deactivated Facebook for the six weeks before the election reported a 0.060 standard deviation improvement in an index of happiness, depression, and anxiety, relative to controls who deactivated for just the first of those six weeks. People who deactivated Instagram for those six weeks reported a 0.041 standard deviation improvement relative to controls. Exploratory analysis suggests the Facebook effect is driven by people over 35, while the Instagram effect is driven by women under 25.

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Most central banks are seeing rapid declines in banknote return frequency and destruction rates. This reflects greater efficiency of cash cycle as well as falling transactional demand. So it's not all bad, but the risk is that maintaining cash infrastructure gets v costly...

Chart showing that a significant share of central banks saw the rate of banknote returns and destruction shrink more than 40% in the past 10 years.

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Experiment: deep fried PSB with soy and chilli

A bowl of deep fried purple sprouting broccoli

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

On my way to Cape Town for the Central Banking Spring Meetings. Long journey just beginning!

View across London from the train. Tracks in foreground, Shard in background

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Just starting this. Loved Olive Kitteridge so I have high hopes #booksky

Tell me everything by Elizabeth Strout. Hardback with an orangey-red cloth binding on the spine. Illustrated with a line drawing of a road through trees, presumably in Maine

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

The all-new, all-online Central Bank Directory is now live after about nine months of our team grinding through the data. Want to find every central bank librarian in Asia Pacific? Every auditor at the Central Bank of Eswatini? Now you can! www.centralbanking.com/directory

Landing page of the new Central Bank Directory, with search bar, contact finding tool and A-Z of central banks

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Aoife one today. Amazing. How did we get this far? Had a lovely day. Chocolate cake a big hit.

Aoife, with decorations reading 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY AOIFE'

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Striking finding - over 60% of central banks report struggling to fill risk management posts. Issue seems to be partly competition on pay from private sector, partly need for specific skills, e.g. risk knowledge and programming www.centralbanking.com/benchmarking...

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

Stewing the clementines for this has made the house smell *great*

Nigella's Clementine cake, still warm in the tin

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

Serrano ham and pineapple pizza, a crime against multiple European nations

A pizza with ham and pineapple. Delicious!

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

This is an excellent biryani. Here's a slightly less photogenic version we had for our traditional new year's day curry feast this year

Nigella's Indonesian inspired biryani in a big blue pot, Jan 1, 2024

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

I didn't know Le Guin wrote a book on writing but I'm glad she did. A very fine Christmas present!

Front cover of the book Steering the Craft by Ursula Le Guin.

First page of the first chapter of Steering the Craft - the sound of your writing

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Our economics benchmark report is out now. One thing we dug into this year was what features go into central banks' key models, inspired by Bernanke's wishlist for the BoE. Very few central banks do the more advanced stuff www.centralbanking.com/benchmarking...

Chart showing main elements of central bank forecast models. Multiple transmission channels and inflation expectations appear in close to 90% of respondents' models, but non-linearities and heterogeneous agents are quite rare, in use at <20% of central banks

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Great news - Extra Teeth is back! When a small literary publication goes on hiatus the natural assumption is that's the end of it... But no! And I might actually have something to submit... www.extrateeth.co.uk

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

London looking good this evening, after the rain.

The view from Ruskin Park. Playing fields in the foreground, a row of houses, then skyscrapers catching the last of the light on their western faces. Above, clouds, slantwise.

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Me from another era, if you count 2008 as another era. Aged 18 and about to go and do something stupid involving a mountain

Me aged 18 wearing a straw cowboy hat and carrying a big rucksack

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Post! From Sister Ray Records. Yes I am weird and still buy CDs

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Lunch! At the excellent On the Bab in Shoreditch

Delicious Korean food inc fried chicken, pancakes, deep fried cheese balls, kimchi and coleslaw

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Our latest benchmark report is now live, on cash management. The full report is only accessible to central banks, but here's a chart on access to cash policies, which are fairly widespread, if uneven in quality/impact. www.centralbanking.com/benchmarking...

Chart showing that close to half of central banks in our sample have an access to cash policy. Over 40% set minimum levels of cash services at banks, and over 50% require retailers to accept cash.

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Dan Hinge @danhinge.bsky.social · 09/11/2024

Two lasagne of love. Didn't manage to take a photo before part got snaffled. Andrea says it's the best lasagna she's ever eaten - thanks @nigella.bsky.social !