The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has appointed heads at the BIS Innovation Hub's centers in Singapore and Switzerland.

In a Feb. 19 declaration, the BIS revealed that Andrew McCormack — who currently serves as chief information officer at payment clearing and settlement firm Payments Canada — will now be the head of the BIS Innovation Hub Centre in Singapore. At the aforementioned time, Morten Bech, Head of Secretariat for the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) at BIS, volition manage the Hub Centre in Switzerland.

Fostering cross-border cooperation on fintech

McCormack gained experience in policy and strategy with a focus on enterprise software pattern and evolution. Prior to joining the hub, he led blockchain research, alongside the Bank of Canada and industry.

Bech began working for BIS in mid-2011, where he held the position of Secretary to the Markets Committee earlier appointment to his current position at the depository financial institution. His professional person groundwork too includes positions at the Federal Reserve Banking company of New York and the Danish central bank.

BIS established the BIS Innovation Hub last Nov in an effort to foster international cooperation amid central banks on innovative financial technology. Initially, the hub is set to operate in Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong, with plans for further expansion.

The launch announcement explained that "the Hub's mandate is to identify, and develop in-depth insights into disquisitional trends in technology affecting fundamental banking; develop public goods in the technology space geared towards improving the operation of the global financial system; and serve as a focal bespeak for a network of central bank experts on innovation."

Focus on CBDC and DLT

Moreover, the Swiss heart was initially set to focus on two research projects — integration of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) into a distributed ledger applied science infrastructure, and analysis of the rise requirements for tracking fast-paced electronic markets by cardinal banks.

Indeed, BIS conducted CBDC research that by Jan. 23, revealed that but 10% of key banks are likely to event a CBDC for the general public in the short term.

Equally Cointelegraph previously reported, BIS full general manager Agustin Carstens expressed a negative stance toward CBDCs, claiming that they could facilitate a bank run and enable people to motion their funds from commercial banks to central bank accounts faster, destabilizing the system.