Central Bank publishes Annual Report and Annual Performance Statement 2024

The Central Bank of Ireland has today 29 May 2025 published its Annual Report and Annual Performance Statement for 2024.

Speaking on publication of the report, Governor Gabriel Makhlouf said: “2024 was a year defined by change.

“We find ourselves facing into a period of both challenge and opportunity for the Irish economy, against an uncertain international backdrop. The global geopolitical landscape faces significant strain and complexity, driven by competing interests, shifting alliances with different values and increasingly independent economic blocs.

Reflecting on the course of the last year, Governor Makhlouf said: “During 2024 we refreshed our Strategy, updating and extending it to focus on some of the actions we will take to achieve our aims over the next three years.  

“We implemented changes to our Fitness and Probity regime, including setting up a new Fitness and Probity team within the Bank, following a review by Andrea Enria.  This enables us to improve our processes, benefiting the firms we regulate while continuing to maintain our standards. 

“We published deep analytical work on housing and progressed a number of key policy objectives in the area of macroprudential policy for funds, including introducing macroprudential measures for GBP Liability Driven Investment Funds and publishing a Feedback Statement to a discussion paper on an approach to macroprudential policy for investment funds.

“Over the course of the year we put in place a new integrated approach to regulation and supervision, which involved significant internal reorganisation.  This, among other things, will enable us to better respond to the risk environment of the sectors we supervise and the consumers we work to protect.

“We also launched our Innovation Sandbox, focusing on combatting financial crime, in conjunction with a number of firms. We enhanced our data and statistics capabilities, including launching our new Frontier Statistics series.

“We actively contributed to the development of Ireland’s National Payment Strategy in conjunction with the Department of Finance, as well as contributing to work with the European Central Bank to meet our Eurosystem objectives as part of the preparation phase for the Digital Euro project.

“We see the financial system as an enabler of the transition to net zero, and our work continues in this area, integrating climate risks into our supervisory approach and tools, including the publication of our Flood Protection Gap Report.

“Preparations to implement new cross-sectoral legislation, such as the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, the Digital Operational Resilience Act and the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act continued through the year. We implemented the Individual Accountability Framework, and finalised our review of the Consumer Protection Code.

“Focusing on the Bank as an organisation, our financial position remains robust, despite the losses that we have incurred as a result of the necessary monetary policy actions to achieve price stability. These losses reflect the use of our balance sheet as a policy tool, and – over a number of years – the Bank has built up substantial financial buffers in anticipation of such an eventuality.

“The Central Bank of Ireland is operating in an increasingly complex international financial system with significantly increased demands for deep expertise across our mandate.  None of this multifaceted and demanding work would be possible without the people who work here, who have risen to the challenge. Our values – integrity and care, courage and humility, teamwork and excellence – guide all of us. Our diversity and inclusiveness strengthen us, individually and as an organisation. It is my honour and that of my leadership team to work with our colleagues and we thank them for their dedication and commitment to the public interest and the welfare of the people as a whole.”

ENDS