Central Bank publishes Annual Report & Annual Performance Statement for 2020

• Annual Report and Annual Performance Statement highlight the scale and variety of the work undertaken by the Central Bank in 2020.
• Financial profit of €829.6m reported for 2020. Surplus income of €665.7 million paid to the Exchequer.
• The Central Bank has also published its Protected Disclosures Annual Report 2020.

The Central Bank of Ireland has today (2 June 2021) published its 2020 Annual Report and Annual Performance Statement.

Speaking on the launch of the report, Governor Gabriel Makhlouf said:

“2020 was an extraordinary year for the country and I want to thank the Central Bank’s people for their dedication and commitment to serving the public through the pandemic.

"This report sets out what our people achieved last year and provides an overview of the key activities aimed at safeguarding monetary and financial stability and ensuring that the financial system operated in the best interests of consumers and the wider economy. Resilience was a particularly important theme with our energy and focus aimed at ensuring the financial system absorbed and did not amplify the COVID-19 induced shock and was ready to support the economic recovery, while also managing the risks during the transition period following the UK’s departure from the EU at the end of January 2020.

“In March 2020, to enable the banking sector to maintain a sustainable supply of credit to the economy and continue to serve households and businesses, we announced a reduction in the countercyclical capital buffer (CCyB) from 1% to 0%. Given the macro-financial outlook, we do not expect to announce an increase in the CCyB this year.

“Throughout 2020, we worked closely with our colleagues in the EU as part of the collective response to the pandemic while also contributing in particular to the ECB’s review of its monetary policy strategy. This work has continued into 2021, as are the international efforts to develop and operationalise a more comprehensive macro-prudential framework, including for market-based finance. At the ECB, we will also decide on the next steps in the development of a digital euro. And we will play our part in tackling the challenge of climate change, leading by example in our own actions, as well as delivering on our mandate to ensure that the financial system is resilient to climate related risks, and ready to support the transition to a more sustainable world. We will also continue to prioritise issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the identification of emerging risks to ensure that appropriate steps are taken to mitigate them. We continue to expect regulated firms to be proactive and forward-looking in anticipating future opportunities and threats, including those arising from new product/technological innovation and climate change.

“A key priority this year is the development of our new strategic plan. The challenges ahead – for economies in general and financial systems in particular – are complex. We want to ensure that we learn the lessons of the past as we work to develop the optimal policy and regulatory mix for macroeconomic stabilisation in what will be a different future. Thank you to everyone who has responded to the invitation to provide input into our new strategic plan.

“Finally, today we have also published our Protected Disclosure Annual Report 2020. Protected Disclosures are an important tool to help us discharge our mandate. I encourage individuals to report concerns or information relating to suspected regulatory wrongdoing in financial services. Each protected disclosure is assessed carefully. Actions taken during 2020 as a result of information received led to a series of important outcomes and included undertaking additional supervisory work such as inspections, requiring firms to fix issues and/or putting them under higher supervisory focus, and enforcement action."

Notes

The Protected Disclosures Act 2014 requires public bodies to prepare and publish a report each year relating to the number of protected disclosures made to public bodies in the preceding year in addition to detailing the action taken in response to the disclosures made. Reports are required to be issued no later than 30 June.

Further information on the Central Bank’s Protected Disclosures Regime is available our website.