BIS digital currency lead quits early amid leadership changes

Cecilia Skingsley will leave her role as head of the BIS Innovation Hub next month, cutting short her five-year term by two years amid a broader leadership reshuffle at the central bank body.

The Bank for International Settlements digital currency lead Cecilia Skingsley will leave her role two years earlier than planned, Reuters has learned. Skingsley has led the BIS Innovation Hub since September 2022, a unit created in 2019 to help central banks explore new financial technologies, including central bank digital currencies.

The Innovation Hub started with just a few centers but has expanded to seven financial hubs around the world, including London and Hong Kong in an effort to support central banks in adopting new technologies.

Skingsley, who previously served as deputy governor of the Swedish central bank, will leave to take a government role as County Governor of Stockholm County, the report reads. She is expected to start the new position next month.

Pablo Hernandez de Cos will take over as BIS general manager in July, and his arrival has been linked to plans to scale back parts of the Innovation Hub, which recently ended a key digital currency project with China and several Asian central banks amid growing geopolitical tensions around CBDCs.

BIS chief Agustín Carstens praised Skingsley’s work, saying in a statement that the Innovation Hub “made great strides towards fulfilling our strategic goal of helping central banks face the challenges of the future” under her leadership.

The BIS said it will announce the recruitment process for Skingsley’s replacement “in due course.” In the meantime, deputy general manager and former Swiss central banker Andréa Maechler will serve as interim head of the Innovation Hub.