Eastern Caribbean Central Bank - 2025 Customer Recognition Awards: Community Uplift

[SAS_Innovate]

Eastern Caribbean Central Bank

Contact: Leah Sahely and the SES Team of Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB)

Country:  St. Kitts

Award Category: Community Uplift

Tell how you've used SAS to have a positive impact on your community.

Since 2019, the ECCB has been using SAS Studio and SAS Viya in its centralized, secure data warehouse. This system collects data from various providers, including commercial banks, statistical offices, and government agencies across eight member countries, and processes and disseminates it to data consumers. By standardizing and consolidating data collection, the ECCB ensures consistent reporting at both the national and Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) levels.

In addition to improving timeliness, SAS has facilitated the uniform submission of data, which is an improvement over the past software, when submissions varied in format. Recently, the ECCB expanded its data collection to include other licensed financial institutions. Using an API integrated with SAS, the publication of data on ECCB’s website is now automated, enabling real-time data retrieval and public access, which enhances transparency and accessibility.

What SAS products are you using and how are you using them?

• SAS Viya: To manage the centralized data warehouse, perform advanced analytics, and design user-friendly reports and dashboards, which are accessible to external data providers as well as staff within the ECCB, including bank examiners, researchers, and policy advisors.
• SAS Studio: To create and run data queries, transformations, and systematic archiving of uploading CSV files.
• SAS Excel Add-In: To retrieve data, generate reports, and streamline internal processes like the Economic and Financial Review and the Macroeconomic Framework, allowing economists to prepare their reports and conduct analyses more efficiently. It also integrates with tools like Power Query for further analysis, including data cleansing.
• R Integration: Direct interfacing with SAS data for advanced data analytics.
• API Integration: To automate the publication of data on ECCB’s website, ensuring real-time updates and greater transparency.

What was your most surprising discovery about your work?

The efficiency and transparency achieved through automation were surprising. Real-time validation during data uploads eliminated manual errors, reduced processing time, and ensured uniformity. The ECCB is a multi-country central bank hence the ability to consolidate data at the currency union level enhanced reporting and decision-making.

Moving from manual submissions and validations to real-time uploads with built-in checks significantly reduced errors and administrative effort. Additionally, the ability to create explanations due to movements in the data based on predetermined thresholds, during the upload process, improved accountability and accuracy in data reporting.