1. Who We Are

Reserves Advisory and Management Program (RAMP)

«
»

  • Since 2001, RAMP has been the World Bank Treasury’s platform for delivering demand-driven capacity building and asset management services to official sector asset managers in developing countries and international institutions. This work helps central banks, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds build human capital, strengthen governance and operations, and deliver returns on financial resources consistent with their mandates and risk parameters. Today, RAMP serves 67 institutions across the World Bank Group’s five regions, including many located in low-income countries and fragile and conflict affected situations.

    RAMP engagements typically couple capacity building and asset management services so clients can access the full scope of Treasury’s expertise. Led by staff with substantial prior asset management experience at central banks or national pension funds, these engagements mobilize the skills and experience of senior practitioners to deliver capacity building that targets areas of client need. RAMP services address the full range of roles and functions that contribute to sound investment management, including board of directors, portfolio and risk managers, accountants, information technology, and internal audit.

    RAMP has a broad range of development impact. It builds human capital by sharing financial knowledge and developing financial expertise among key leaders and officials whose work contributes to the health of developing countries’ public and private sectors. It strengthens countries’ financial stability, economic resilience, and socio-economic well-being through the promotion of best practices in reserve management at official sector institutions. It also empowers international development agencies by sharing knowledge and expertise that helps maximize their financial resources.

  • RAMP’s capacity building focuses on developing clients’ human capital and enhancing their information technology infrastructure. It delivers knowledge and skill development through workshops and customized advisory services at clients’ places of business; internships at the World Bank Treasury; and sponsored financial education. It helps clients develop processes for assessing and upgrading existing digital systems and provides training in and access to proprietary software that increases clients’ ability to execute core reserve management functions.

    RAMP organizes approximately 20 technical workshops annually. Typically led by Treasury practitioners, these multi-day sessions build skills in fundamental disciplines of reserve management. Workshops typically take place in English at Treasury locations in Washington or Paris. On a select basis, they are offered in Spanish or French and at RAMP member or partner institutions.

    Customized client advisory services are generally provided by Treasury specialists who travel to clients’ places of business. These on-site, week-long missions deliver implementation guidance on client-specific engagement plan components and can cover subject matter that spans almost every core function of reserve management.

    Internships at Treasury offer clients an immersive way to build capacity and relationships with World Bank experts. These intense two-week professional experiences are customized to accomplish clients’ engagement objectives and can take place in any relevant Treasury department.

    RAMP also provides clients access to financial education through third-parties. It sponsors test preparation for certifications like Chartered Financial Analyst and Financial Risk Manager, as well as comprehensive online training in finance and portfolio management.

  • RAMP’s asset management delivers clients value through investment returns that have a track record of outperforming selected benchmarks. The World Bank Treasury’s menu of investment offerings allows clients to achieve returns in ways consistent with their risk profiles and objectives, and to construct portfolios that they may not have the technical capacity to manage on their own.

    Treasury’s asset management offerings for RAMP clients comprise select fixed income strategies. Clients may choose investment mandates that use a range of financial instruments linked to sovereign risk or US residential or commercial mortgages. These include sovereign bonds, agency debentures, supranational debt, covered bonds, exchange-traded interest rate and bond futures, US Agency mortgage-backed securities, and short-dated bank deposits. The benchmarks that Treasury uses to track its performance in these asset classes include Intercontinental Exchange Bank of America Merrill Lynch (ICE BofA ML) short duration US Treasury and Euro government indices, ICE BofA ML global bond indices, and the Barclays Capital US MBS Index.

    This product range enables clients to adopt asset management strategies that address some of the unique contexts in which they operate. For example, Treasury can build client portfolios in multiple currencies or portfolios that require a specific reserve composition or hedging. Its investment products can also address return issues that arise from low or negative interest rates and accommodate the needs of clients whose countries have currencies with dollar pegs. 

  • Each year, RAMP convenes events that build community and promote knowledge sharing among public sector asset management practitioners. These conferences bring together clients and non-clients to build awareness of common challenges, share effective responses, and expand peer-to-peer networks.

    RAMP’s signature event, the Executive Forum, occurs annually in Washington, immediately after the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings. It attracts central bank governors, heads of pension and sovereign wealth funds, and leading intellectuals as presenters and participants. At the 2017 Forum, speakers included World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, former head of the European Central Bank Jean Claude Trichet, and Allianz Chief Economic Advisor and author Mohammed El-Arian. More than 130 officials from 71 countries participated, including 23 central bank governors and CEOs.

    RAMP also brings together industry peers at events focused on regional or thematic issues. For example, in November 2016, it co-hosted the 6th Public Investors Conference on Portfolio and Risk Management in Washington, with the Bank of International Settlements and the Bank of Canada. The conference assembled 93 practitioners and academics from 31 countries to foster the development and sharing of best practices in public sector portfolio and risk management.

    Most recently, in November 2017, RAMP co-hosted the Asia Forum on Reserve Management in Bangkok, with the Bank of Thailand. At the Forum, public sector asset managers from 48 institutions exchanged ideas on how to address potential monetary policy spillovers, portfolio strategies in a low interest rate environment, China’s economic reforms, and the implications of new technology on reserve management.

  • RAMP gives clients a customizable, convenient and powerful way to manage and access information related to their engagement using the Treasury Client Center (TCC). This secure online client portal delivers RAMP members a range of functionality, including the ability to register for Treasury workshops, view event participation history, access investment reports, and analyze performance, while also protecting their confidential information. 

    Sign into the Treasury Client Center (eTCC)

    With TCC, users can create personal profiles to customize report views, favorite reports for quick access, subscribe to reports and receive them as email attachments, perform smart searches, and manage event participation efficiently. The platform also improves access to information through tablet-enabled design, which facilitates easy finger navigation on touch screen devices, along with an enhanced self-service mechanism, which streamlines and significantly improves the efficiency of the access provisioning process. With the integration of billing into the TCC, clients can also directly download invoices from the system, further reducing the paper-based transmissions.

    The TCC manages risk by preventing loss or unauthorized access to information through enhanced and robust cyber security. The newly-introduced authentication, the industry-standard One Time Password, ensures users’ secured access to their information. The portable accessibility enables users to access the TCC anytime from anywhere in the world. The self-registration and management process steps up users’ role-based access to the customized interface.