- BIS, one of the most important banking institutions in the world, is hiring blockchain experts
- New hirings will be leads of development projects employing the blockchain technology
- It can be expected that such projects will be adopted by central banks of major economies
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has today announced that they are hiring DLT/blockchain experts. The BIS is one of the most important international financial institutions which is often called “the bank for the central banks”. Prospective candidates can look forward to working at one of the two BIS’ Innovation Hub locations which are Switzerland, or Hong Kong.
The BIS is looking to hire numerous blockchain software engineers and solution architects on fixed 3-year term contracts.
It’s been two years since they published a report on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The report described that, to continue working on them, caution should be advised in spite of the fact that at the time, around 70% of BIS members were already exploring such projects. As it stands, this job advertisement mentions CBDCs as one of the responsibilities for future employees – a complete reversal of the initial report.
What is BIS
The BIS is often described as a bank for central banks. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, it is one of the pillars of the international banking system. Their owners are made up of group of central banks located in 60 countries from around the world. Among the members of this group are some of the world’s largest economies which include the US Federal Reserve System, the European Central Bank, the People’s Bank of China, the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Bank of England, and far more.
The main goal of the BIS is stated as maintaining financial and monetary stability through cooperation between central banks. Thus it offers banking services only to central banks of member countries and other different supranational organizations. But, today its most visible role is in regulating banks’ capital adequacy levels per Basel Capital Accords, and through Basel I, II, and III frameworks which specify the minimal capital/asset ratio for commercial banks active on international markets.
Why BIS needs blockchain experts?
In short, this advertisement is proof that one of the most important commercial banking institutions in the world is now branching out into blockchain technology. While simply hiring blockchain experts might sound like business as usual, the BIS is looking for something more. The advertisement states:
“Lead engineering and prototype development projects for digital assets of relevance to central banks, such as CBDCs, tokenised [sic] securities and token-based payment systems. This includes the design, build and deployment of ‘proof-of-concept’ DLT / Blockchain projects”
This is a clear sign that the BIS intends to become involved in the latest FinTech innovations. The BIS, as an international institution is governed by the consent of its members. Of these involved members, a majority or at least the largest and most influential of them are quite likely supporting this development.
We can only speculate on the specific projects the hired blockchain experts will be working on, but it is factual that the support of many influential central banks and will be implemented by central banks of arguably the most influential central banks in the world.
