A message from

Babak Abbaszadeh, President and CEO

Dear friends, colleagues, and TC associates,

Happy Canada Day!

July 1 marks Canada’s 157th anniversary of Confederation. Toronto Centre is proud to amplify Canadian leadership on financial inclusion and stability globally. Our important work would not be possible without the generous support of the Government of Canada.

As we cross the midpoint of 2024, it has been an extremely busy year for Toronto Centre. We have delivered 29 programs, two workshops, and launched a new webinar series on the Core Principles for effective banking supervision to prepare supervisors to address today’s challenges.

We had the pleasure of welcoming two central bank governors to our office. Governor Erik Thedéen of Riksbank, who is also a board member and was recently appointed Chair of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, met with staff on May 23. Then, on June 13, Zambia Governor Dr. Denny Kalyalya visited us while in Toronto on business. We thank both of them for taking time out of their busy schedules to meet with us.

Governors Erik Thedéen of Riksbank (left) and Dr. Denny Kalyalya of Zambia (center and right)

I was honoured to speak at a panel on financial stability at the National Bank of Rwanda’s 60^th anniversary celebrations. It provided me with the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and make new ones, and to discuss the challenges facing central banks and supervisory authorities in this age of uncertainty. I was humbled to hear from many governors and deputy governors from various African nations that Toronto Centre has helped their organizations. There was much discussion about how to deal with climate change-related risk, which has been recognized as a risk in the revised Core Principles.

Governor John Rwangombwa and I at the anniversary celebrations for the National Bank of Rwanda

I am proud to note that Toronto Centre has taken a leading role in this area, connecting with the global conversation through panel discussions and other forums, providing training programs, and publishing several TC Notes and a toolkit.

TC Insight and Webinar Series on the revised Core Principles

A significant development in the past quarter was the Basel Committee’s publication of its revised Core Principles of effective banking supervision. We responded quickly to this first update to the Core Principles since 2012, publishing a TC Insight and launching a webinar series focused on key elements of the revisions.

2023 Annual Report

Our 2023 Annual Report is now available. In 2023, with the guidance of our board of directors, we developed a new strategic plan for an increasingly fragile world, which we are now implementing. We continued to deliver on our core mission of providing high-quality programming to build the knowledge and skills of supervisors and regulators to maintain stable and inclusive financial systems.

Certified Financial Supervisor highlights

Participants in our first in-person program in Toronto this year, CFS Crisis Preparedness

We were delighted to welcome to Toronto 33 participants from 13 countries for the Crisis Preparedness Program, a mandatory program of the Certified Financial Supervisor (CFS) designation.

Our flagship CFS designation continues to build momentum, as demand was strong for the new CFS Level 2 Effective Supervision program as well as the Level 1 Climate and Biodiversity Loss Risks program. Registration is open for the Level 2 elective programs Conglomerate Supervision (Aug. 26-30) and Digital Financial Services Supervision (Sept. 16-20). The foundational Core Curriculum Program follows in October. This program is an excellent entry point.

Women’s Leadership Program (WLP) expands

Toronto Centre has taken a further step to expand the impact of the WLP, an intensive program for female supervisors, as we announced and opened registration the first WLP for the Indo-Pacific region. Meanwhile, we congratulated the fifth graduating class of the WLP 1.0, comprised of 14 women leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa. The WLP has established a thriving alumni network of women supervisors.

TC Notes

Toronto Centre’s timely and relevant publications on pressing issues in supervision continued with three new TC Notes focused on retail conduct interventions, cross-border supervision of capital and liquidity, and financial inclusion for displaced persons.

Vital conversations

Toronto Centre returned to Washington, D.C. for the 2024 Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank. It was an honour to host global leaders from central banks, financial supervisory authorities, standard-setting organizations, development organizations, and others at our events.

Our executive panel, Combatting Financial Crime in a Digital Age, ranged from the human toll of cyber-crime to the many steps being taken to coordinate and sharpen the response of authorities.

We hosted leaders from central banking, financial supervision, and development organizations for an exclusive discussion of the challenges and opportunities around the use of blended finance to attract capital for development focused on SDGs.

And we partnered with the Bretton Woods Committee, the CFA Institute, and the McKinsey Global Institute to host an in-depth discussion regarding financing for climate transition projects in emerging economies.

You can read the detailed Proceedings here.

Team

I'm very pleased to welcome to our team of program directors Floris Fleermuys. Prior to joining Toronto Centre, he was the Head of the Research, Policy and Statistics Division at the Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority.

Looking ahead to the second half of 2024, we will continue to support our TC Community. We gratefully acknowledge the essential support of our funders, founders, board of directors, partners, and advisory board chairs and members.

On behalf of the entire Toronto Centre team, we look forward to seeing you again soon.

Best regards,

Babak Abbaszadeh

President and CEO

Toronto Centre

Phone: (416) 943-9300 | (416) 943-4800

Web: www.torontocentr e.org | Email: info@torontocentre.org