Miscellaneous Publications

Monetary and Capital Markets Department: Technical Assistance Handbook

January 2022

This online handbook: Why, what, and who for?
Monetary and Capital Markets Department: Technical Assistance Handbook

Why?

The Monetary and Capital Markets Department (MCM) has for many years provided technical assistance (TA) across a wide range of economic and financial issues. The application of these issues is often not well covered in reference material, particularly so regarding the recognition of challenges faced by authorities in emerging and low-income countries and in countries that manage substantial natural resource wealth. This handbook is motivated by the desire to distill, document and make widely available, the lessons learnt from MCM TA over a long period of time while also incorporating lessons learnt globally. It is intended to highlight and promote good practices and support the consistency of MCM’s advice. It is however stressed that one size solutions can not fit all, and all advice therefore needs to be tailored to country-specific circumstances.

What?

The handbook comprises self-contained, issue-specific chapters with cross-references on overlapping issues where needed. Chapters to the handbook will be added as they are available and may be updated as new lessons come to light.

This handbook covers the following broad topics:

  • Monetary policy frameworks and transitions,
  • Forecasting and Policy Analysis Systems (FPAS),
  • Effective policy communications
  • Operational frameworks
  • Foreign exchange operations and intervention strategies
  • Financial market development,
  • International reserves management,
  • Central bank governance and risk management,
  • Cash currency management
  • Central bank accounting and audit,
  • Financial market infrastructures and payments.
  • Specific issues for resource-rich low-income countries
  • Who for?

    This handbook is targeted at those who provide TA on the identified issues (both IMF and non-IMF personnel), and practitioners in central banks and other relevant institutions.

    Individual chapters of the handbook are published on this website as soon as they become available.

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    Table of Contents

    I. Monetary Policy Frameworks

    General
  • Choice of exchange rate arrangement (Available Now)
  • Forecasting and Policy Analysis Systems (FPAS) (Forthcoming)
  • Transmission of monetary policy (Forthcoming)
  • Central bank communications (Available Now)

  • Special Cases and Transitions
  • Unconventional monetary policy - estimating the lower bound (Forthcoming)
  • Moving to greater exchange rate flexibility (Spring 2022)
  • De-dollarization (Forthcoming)
  • Stabilization in a high-inflation environment (Forthcoming)
  •  

    II. Monetary Operations and Domestic Market Development

    Monetary Operations
  • Operational framework options (Forthcoming)
  • Liquidity forecasting (Forthcoming)
  • Auctions and open market operations (Forthcoming)
  • Reserve requirements (Available Now)
  • Standing facilities (Forthcoming)
  • Managing structural liquidity (Forthcoming)
  • Counterparty policy (Forthcoming)
  • Collateral and risk management policies (Forthcoming
  • Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) (Forthcoming)
  • Institutional arrangements: central banks and ministries of finance (Forthcoming)

  • Domestic Market Development
  • Interbank and repo markets (Forthcoming)
  • Interest rate benchmarks (Forthcoming)
  • Government securities (Forthcoming)
  • Derivatives (Forthcoming)

  • Special Cases
  • Implementing a reserve money program (Summer 2022)
  • Transitioning Operational Targets—From Reserve Money to Interest Rates (Available Now)
  • Liquidity management in a fixed exchange rate (Summer 2022)
  • Monetary operations and liquidity regulation (Forthcoming)
  • Policy implementation in segmented markets (Forthcoming)
  • Data requirements to run operations (Forthcoming)
  •  

    III. Foreign Exchange Operations and FX Market Development

    General
  • FX intervention objectives in floating rate regimes (Forthcoming)
  • FX intervention strategies (Forthcoming)

  • Basic Instruments
  • FX auctions (Forthcoming)
  • FX swaps (Forthcoming)
  • Reference rates (Forthcoming)

  • Foreign Exchange Market Development
  • FX market development (Forthcoming)
  • FX market codes and prudential regulatory framework (Forthcoming)