ECCB 2021-2022 Annual Report and Statement of Accounts

EASTERN CARIBBEAN CENTRAL BANK ANNUAL REPORT 2021/2022 21

Digital Transformation

Data Analytics Project During the year, the Bank focused on developing a strategy to integrate data analytics into the work programme to allow for improved operations and more data driven policy insights. The strategy focused on the following pillars: ƒ Pillar I - Upgrade of the cadre of tools to be deployed within the Bank to ensure effective execution and replication of Data Analytic Projects; ƒ Pillar II – Assessment of the talent pool within the Bank that can be deployed to support the data analytics strategy; ƒ Pillar III – Evaluation and upgrade of key statutory outputs; and ƒ Pillar IV – Attract, retain and improve the talent pool. With respect to Pillar II, an internal survey provided information on existing data analytic skills within the Bank. The results of the survey informed the approach to training, where the Bank supported professional certificates in Data Science for six core staff within the Research and Statistics Departments. Further, Bank-wide training will be implemented during the new financial year.

Status of Integration of Data Analytics into Work Programme

Statistical Enterprise Solution The Bank advanced work to include economic data in its new statistical enterprise solution which uses the SAS software, to ensure a centralised data warehouse. SAS was updated to accommodate mergers and acquisitions of banks, to ensure so that there were no gaps in the datasets. As part of its transition from its legacy system to SAS, old and new datasets were bridged to automatically capture a time series of key indicators. The indicators included those for monetary and financial statistics and financial soundness indicators according to international standards. In addition, as part of its digital transformation, the Bank utilised an Application Programming Interface (API) to pull data from SAS directly to an external database, which can transfer data to the ECCB’s website directly. SWIFT Customer Security Programme (CSP) The ECCB engaged an external service provider to perform an assessment of the Bank’s implementation of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) Customer Security Programme (CSP) recommended controls, for effective defenses against cyberattacks and to protect the integrity of the payment systems. The assessment included performing test procedures over the 31 SWIFT CSP controls and the end-to-end transaction chain beyond the SWIFT local infrastructure. Based on the results of this independent assessment, the Bank successfully attested to SWIFT CSP 2020 requirements in advance of the 31 December 2021 deadline.

P I L L A R

I I

Under Pillar III, the Bank conducted an evaluation of the Reports on Money and Credit Conditions and the Banking Sector. Given the significant overlap between the two reports, a decision was taken to merge the reports into the Money, Credit and Financial Conditions Report. This report has since been upgraded to include better quality charts and improved analysis. Further, upgrades to the report on Money, Credit and Financial Conditions are planned to include a shift away from the traditional point-to-point analysis to more trend analysis for greater insights to support policy and decision making. Upgrade of other statutory outputs will continue into 2022-2023.

EASTERN CARIBBEAN CENTRAL BANK ANNUAL REPORT 2021/2022 21