The OMFIF Podcast
Episodes
Nature loss: the insurance protection blind spot
25 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
As natural disasters accelerate in both frequency and severity around the world, it is becoming increasingly difficult for insurers to provide pro...
The emerging markets asset class amid the Middle East energy shock
13 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Tara Hariharan, managing director and head of research at NWI Management, joins Mark Sobel, chief economist and vice chair at OMFIF to discuss eme...
China's flailing growth model and challenges
10 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Pettis, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment and co-author of Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy ...
Unpacking sandboxes
20 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
As the new generation of financial infrastructure takes shape, the need for sophisticated tools to inform policy-makers is growing. To encourage i...
Collapsing retail and wholesale for a universal CBDC
06 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Discussions around central bank digital currencies typically begin with the intended use case. If the CBDC is for retail use, then all the subsequ...
Where the risks really are in sovereign portfolios
23 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Max Castelli, head of strategy for sovereign institutions, and Philipp Salman, director of strategy for sovereign institutions at UBS Asset Management...
Spending smarter: effective allocations in public investment
15 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the coming year, renewed attention should be made to explore how governments can shift from simply spending more to spending smarter. Drawing on ne...
The imperative of debt transparency
12 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Sovereign debt scholar Anna Gelpern, Scott K. Ginsburg professor of law and international finance at Georgetown University, joins Mark Sobel, US c...
Sovereigns, spreads and stability in Europe
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
European fixed income has been 'normalising' over 2025. Inflation is stabilising, the European Central Bank has halted rates near neutral, spreads are...
Baseline and risks in the 2026 global economic outlook
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dennis Shen, chair of the macroeconomic council at Scope Ratings, joins Mark Sobel, OMFIF US chair, to discuss the 2026 global economic outlook, prosp...
Looking back on 10 years of the Paris agreement
12 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2015, almost 200 countries signed the Paris agreement in a landmark commitment to limit the impact of global warming. Ten years on, Rahul Ghosh, gl...
Reimagining money: the rise and reach of stablecoins
14 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Stablecoins are dominating the headlines and policy-makers are responding rapidly. The instruments, though once primarily used as a trading pair for c...
Investing in outcomes: delivering more with less
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Governments today face mounting pressure to deliver more with fewer resources. Yet the way public money is managed often leans towards expenditure con...
A new generation of cash on-chain
20 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Money is arriving on blockchain. Whether that is in the form of stablecoins, tokenised deposits or central bank money, it has the potential to reshape...
Can Europe Survive?: Light at the end of the tunnel
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Events and a series of unforced errors leave Europe in a precarious state. How will the half-built political project contend with hostile neighbours, ...
Channelling climate capital to Asia and beyond
09 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With Asia warming at twice the global average, the transition to net zero makes both social and economic sense for the region. Executive Director of t...
A new generation of financial infrastructure
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
National financial infrastructure is undergoing perhaps its most rapid period of change in a generation. The needs and expectations of consumers and b...
Balancing delivery of public value with fiscal responsibility
19 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Around the world, we’re seeing renewed attention to public debt and fiscal tightening, particularly as debt levels continue to rise in advanced econ...
What’s next for the dollar?
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Max Castelli, head of strategy for sovereign institutions at UBS Asset Management, joins Yara Aziz, senior economist at OMFIF, to discuss the future o...
How to make public investment work
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s tighter fiscal position around the world is pushing governments to find alternatives to finance their current expenditure and public investm...
How public funds are addressing physical risk
15 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Manley, chief sustainability officer at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, joins Yara Aziz, senior economist at OMFIF, to discuss the key f...
The dollar's fight for supremacy
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Questions about the long-term viability of the dollar as the world’s supreme transaction and investment currency have been building up for years. Bu...
Point-of-sale integration: the hidden catalyst to CBDC adoption
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Although it frequently flies under the radar, ensuring central bank digital currencies are able to be used at point-of-sale is vital to their success...
After Liberation Day: gold, rates and currency shifts
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Max Castelli, head of strategy for sovereign institutions at UBS Asset Management, joins Yara Aziz, economist at OMFIF, to unpack the global reserve r...
The importance of privacy in capital markets
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Zain Saidin, chief executive officer of Tassat, joins editor of OMFIF's Digital Monetary Institute, Lewis McLellan, to discuss the value of private bl...
Driving ocean sustainability through finance
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ahead of the Blue Economy and Finance Forum taking place on 7-8 June 2025, Louise Heaps, Global Lead Sustainable Blue Economy, and Maud Abdelli, Green...
Navigating long-term investments amid short term volatility
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan Griffiths, senior investment specialist at Capital Group, joins Arunima Sharan, senior economist at OMFIF’s Economic and Monetary Policy I...
Combatting fraud in instant payments systems
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Instant payments systems are proliferating rapidly, and many central banks are working hard on interlinking them to enable quick, efficient cross-bord...
Tokenisation: an engine for convergence
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Real-world asset tokenisation is accelerating, particularly within private distributed ledger technology platforms like R3's Corda. But Richard Brown,...
Will the dollar remain king?
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Blustein, author of King Dollar: The Past and Future of the World's Dominant Currency, joins OMFIF to discuss his latest book and thoughts on why...
CBDC plans energised by stablecoin momentum
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
OMFIF’s 2024 survey of central banks found that, while three-quarters of respondents are continuing their plans to issue central bank digital curren...
Trade, investment and their impact on sustainability
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Amelia Santos-Paulino, chief of investment research at the United Nations Trade and Development's investment and enterprise division, joins OMFIF to d...
How political shifts are reshaping sovereign investment strategies
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Max Castelli, head of strategy for sovereign institutions, and Philipp Salman, director of strategy for sovereign institutions at UBS Asset Management...
Unified ledgers: opportunities and legal challenges
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Discourse on the rewiring of payments and financial markets has been dominated in 2024 by talk of unified ledgers. The technical promises and challeng...
Turning women’s entrepreneurial potential into economic opportunity
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Wendy Teleki, head of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative at the World Bank, joins Arunima Sharan, senior economist at OMFIF's Economic and Mon...
Tokenisation: a new model for collaboration
09 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tokenisation is frequently discussed as a means of improving the efficiency of existing financial markets, but the technology may offer the chance to ...
From plans to impactful strategies transforming transition finance
09 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Yara Aziz, economist at OMFIF’s Economic and Monetary Policy Institute, speaks with Ashleigh Lee, co-lead secretariat of the City of London Corporat...
From petrodollar to petroyuan?
13 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Sobel, US Chair, OMFIF, speaks with Max Castelli, head of strategy, sovereign institutions, UBS Asset Management, on the role of the US dollar an...
Risks and opportunities for investment grade credit in 2025
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Flavio Carpenzano, fixed income investment director at Capital Group, joins Burhan Khadbai, head of content for OMFIF’s Sovereign Debt Institute, to...
Behind the post-election crypto bump
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Bitcoin's price has surged following Donald Trump's victory in the US election. Trump's campaign was calculated to appeal to the crypto world, so the ...
Why governments should embrace technology
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A recent OMFIF-EY report on the future of public money outlines the need for governments to embrace new ideas, frameworks and technology. Joining Nikh...
Transitioning global public funds – strategies, barriers and opportunities
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Anne Simpson, global head of sustainability at Franklin Templeton, joins Emma McGarthy, head of OMFIF’s Sustainable Policy Institute, to assess the ...
Breaking down wholesale CBDC developments with G+D
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
2024 has seen exciting developments in the wholesale central bank digital currency space. Abbas Albasha, senior strategy consultant for CBDC at Giesec...
Examining the changing landscape of digital assets with R3
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Many in capital markets have long been expecting an overhaul in how their business functions from the disruptive effects of digital assets technology....
The Draghi report: key messages for Europe’s economy
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In early September 2024, the European Commission published the long-awaited ‘The future of European competitiveness: Report by Mario Draghi', which ...
Evolution of sustainable government debt issuance
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One of the major structural factors impacting government financing is the massive scale of public money needed to ensure the transition to a carbon ne...
The status of stablecoins
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At present, in most jurisdictions, only commercial banks are able to provide final settlement of payments as the only institutions with access to cent...
Meeting the need for offline digital payments
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Around a third of the world lack reliable internet access and among the two thirds that have access, disruptions and restrictions are far from unknown...
Trump and Harris' 'meaningfully different' economic positions
12 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher Smart, former senior US Treasury and National Security Council official and managing partner of Arbroath Group, joins OMFIF's US chair Mar...
Advancing financial inclusion in the Middle East and Africa
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Omar Massarweh, vice president of public policy for the Middle East and North Africa at Mastercard, joins Arunima Sharan, senior economist at OMFIF to...
Emerging markets debt: trends opportunities and risks
22 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jeremy Cunningham, investment director at Capital Group, speaks with Arunima Sharan, senior economist at OMFIF to discuss the latest trends in emergin...
Despite the odds: Ukraine’s economic reform progress
30 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Vlad Rashkovan, Ukraine's representative to the International Monetary Fund, joins Mark Sobel, OMFIF’s US chair, to provide an update on Ukraine's e...
Entering a new paradigm in central bank reserve management
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Max Castelli, head of strategy, sovereign institutions at UBS asset management, and Philipp Salman, also on the team at UBS, speak with OMFIF Lead Eco...
AI: a double-edged weapon in payments fraud
09 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With the proliferation in artificial intelligence development, the landscape for fraud is changing rapidly. The technology represents a tool for both ...
Building a thriving CBDC ecosystem
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wolfram Seidemann, chief executive officer of Giesecke+Devrient Currency Technology, joins John Orchard, chief executive officer of OMFIF, for a discu...
Economic implications after the European Parliament election
27 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Geoffrey Yu, senior Europe, Middle East and Africa market strategist at BNY Mellon, joins Taylor Pearce, lead economist of OMFIF’s Economic and Mone...
The path to unified ledgers
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With its recent 'Finternet' paper, the Bank for International Settlements has planted its flag firmly in shared ledgers as the future rails of financi...
Sustainability-linked bonds: innovations in green finance
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ulf Erlandsson, founder and chief executive officer of the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute, joins Edward Maling, economist at OMFIF’s Economic a...
Robert Stheeman: 20 years of managing UK government debt
06 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Stheeman, the departing chief executive of the UK Debt Management Office, joins Burhan Khadbai, head of content at OMFIF’s Sovereign Debt Ins...
Indicators and policies to drive gender balance in financial institutions
04 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Regina Curry, chief diversity officer at Franklin Templeton, joins Emma McGarthy, head of the Sustainable Policy Institute at OMFIF, to discuss the im...
Microsoft's vision for responsible AI in the public sector
30 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Valentina Ion, public finance and public transportation lead at Microsoft, joins OMFIF to discuss the company's commitment to ethical and responsible ...
Using better measures to inform public spending
28 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the first of three podcasts as part of OMFIF’s project with EY on the future of public money, OMFIF’s Nikhil Sanghani is joined by Dr Carolyn B...
Financial stability outlook: risks and resilience
07 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pedro Duerte Neves, Adviser for the Board of Directors and former Vice-Governor of Banco de Portugal, joins Taylor Pearce, senior economist, Economic ...
Taking stock: financial market integration in Europe
03 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Björn Storim, chief executive officer, and Ben Pott, managing director and international head of public policy and government affairs at BNY Mellon, ...
US dollar dominance: Is there no alternative?
30 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Max Castelli, head of strategy, sovereign institutions at UBS Asset Management, joins Taylor Pearce, senior economist at OMFIF, to discuss the role o...
Geopolitical risks: What’s at stake for investors?
25 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Taylor Pearce, senior economist, Economic Monetary Institute at OMFIF, hosts Elliot Hentov, head of macro policy research at State Street Global Advis...
Greece’s landmark debt restructuring – What happened and why it matters
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Charles Dallara, ex-managing director of Institute of International Finance, talks about his book Euroshock, explaining how the 2012 Greek debt rest...
The history of dollar dominance and weaponisation
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Saleha Mohsin, senior Washington correspondent for Bloomberg News joined Mark Sobel, US chair at OMFIF, to discuss her recently published book, Paper ...
Pre-validation: combatting fraud and minimising errors in payments
19 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cian O’Murchu, head of strategic transformation, Mireia Guisado-Parra, pre-validation product owner at Swift and Julien Lasalle, head of cashless pa...
Analysing Romania’s landmark debut green bond
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Stefan Nanu, head of public debt management and state treasury at the ministry of finance of Romania, joins Burhan Khadbai, head of content at OMFIF’...
Why gender equality in financial institutions is macro-critical
08 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Monique Newiak, deputy unit chief, inclusion and gender, and Mariarosaria Communale, economist at the International Monetary Fund, join Arunima Sharan...
Global public investor outlook 2024: Another ‘rollercoaster’ year?
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Max Castelli, head of strategy, sovereign institutions, and Philipp Salman, director of strategy and advice, global sovereign markets, UBS Asset Manag...
Safeguarding the future: why organisations need ESG data
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Environmental, social and governance data is integral to scaling up sustainable finance and investment. With increasing regulation and demand for info...
Next steps for the EU’s evolution in bond markets
13 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Siegfried Ruhl, hors classe adviser to the director-general for budget at the European Commission, joins Burhan Khadbai, head of content at OMFIF’s ...
Argentina's sovereign debt litigation disaster
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Gregory Makoff, author of new book Default: The Landmark Court Battle over Argentina's $100 Billion Debt Restructuring joins OMFIF US Chair Mark Sobel...
Risk, policy and investment models for transition finance
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
To transition to a sustainable economy, new investment models are needed. Financial flows into emerging economies must be also scaled. Blended finance...
Establishing a new framework for international climate finance
18 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Vera Songwe, a non-resident senior fellow in the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution and co-chair of the Independent High-Level Expe...
Navigating the new norm: the long-term outlook for inflation and implications for investors
21 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Castelli, head of strategy, sovereign institutions, and Philipp Salman, director of strategy and advice, global sovereign markets, UBS Asset Manag...
Unlocking the benefits of smart contracts for retail CBDCs
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Katie-Ann Wilson, Managing Director of OMFIF’s Digital Monetary Institute is joined by Peter Faykiss Director, Digitalization, Central Bank of Hunga...
The International Monetary Fund’s role in Ukraine’s economy and financing
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The International Monetary Fund's Ukraine team joins OMFIF to discuss the stabilisation of the Ukrainian economy over the past year. They assess the c...
Improving grant delivery and management for emergency responses
04 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There has been a rise in the number of people needing humanitarian assistance over recent years, resulting in disaster response public funding having ...
Enhancing retail government bond programmes to improve diversification
28 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the second part of a special mini-series on the European retail government bond market, Burhan Khadbai, head of content at OMFIF’s Sovereign Debt...
How European DMOs are embracing the return of retail investors
23 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the first of two parts in a special mini-series on the European retail government bond market, Burhan Khadbai, head of content at OMFIF’s Soverei...
Investment needs for the energy transition
14 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Diala Hawila, Knowledge Policy and Finance Centre programme officer at International Renewable Energy Agency, speaks with Katerina Atkins, programme c...
From conception to implementation: the CBDC journey
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Whether or not they eventually go through with it, virtually every central bank will, sooner or later, at least consider issuing a digital currency. W...
Maintaining liquidity in times of crisis
02 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Castelli, head of strategy, sovereign institutions, and Philipp Salman, director of strategy and advice, global sovereign markets, UBS Asset Manag...
The rise of gold as a central bank reserve asset
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Barry Eichengreen, professor of economics and political science at the University of California, Berkeley, and Chima Simpson-Bell, economist in the Af...
In conversation with the ministry of finance: growth prospects for the Hungarian economy
12 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tibor Tóth and Péter Banai, state secretaries of the Hungarian ministry of finance, joined Christopher Garnett, senior adviser to OMFIF’s Sovereig...
In conversation with Barnabás Virág: growth prospects for the Hungarian economy
10 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Barnabás Virág, deputy governor of Magyar Nemzeti Bank, joins David Marsh, OMFIF chairman, for a conversation on the economic outlook in Hungary. Th...
The building blocks for accessing crypto
28 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The cryptoasset class, while battered by scams and scandals, remains a valuable and exciting asset class. But if regulated mainstream financial instit...
The state of Europe: interest rates, inflation and recession risks
26 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this OMFIF podcast, VÃtor Constâncio, former governor of the Banco de Portugal and vice president of the European Central Bank from 2010-18, join...
Banco Central de Chile’s approach to improving gender balance
21 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Marcela Pumarino, people manager at Banco Central de Chile, joins Arunima Sharan, senior research analyst at OMFIF, to discuss the ways in which centr...
How Microsoft is preparing for artificial intelligence in the global economy
19 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How are technology giants preparing for artificial intelligence disruption? Preliminary evidence suggests that AI will improve productivity growth con...
Digital remittances and the power of choice
12 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Chad Harper, global payments fellow of Visa Economic Empowerment Institute, joins Katie-Ann Wilson, managing director of OMFIF’s Digital Monetary In...
GPI 2023: The challenges and responses from Africa’s reserve managers
24 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the last year, central banks across the world have been forced to navigate persistent inflation, suppressed growth and heightened geopolitical tens...
HKMA explores tokenisation with green bond experiment
22 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has successfully completed an experimental green bond issuance through Goldman Sachs’ digital asset platform — th...
Central banks in the digital age: harnessing data
17 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Oliver Berger, head of Middle East & Africa at State Street Corporation, joins Taylor Pearce, senior economist at OMFIF, to discuss the key findin...
Pushing for transparency in transition finance
10 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Simone Utermarck, director, sustainable finance, International Capital Market Association, joins Emma McGarthy, head, Sustainable Policy Institute, OM...
Rethinking long-term growth in an ageing world
07 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We have entered a new demographic paradigm. Birth rates have declined in many countries, while advancements in healthcare have led to longer life expe...
Solving cross-border transactions with CBDCs’
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Despite improvements in domestic payments, cross-border payments remain too slow and expensive for end users, particularly in emerging market economie...