Blog

Infosys (NSE, BSE, NYSE: INFY), a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today announced its collaboration with Telenor Shared Services (TSS), a global business services organization that provides systems, services, and support to Telenor Group. Infosys will help TSS standardize HR processes, enhance employee productivity and experience through implementation of Oracle Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM). This collaboration highlights Infosys’ deep expertise in Oracle Cloud HCM implementations and its commitment to delivering digital transformation solutions that improve HR performance and operational efficiency for the telecom industry.

Through this collaboration, Infosys will help TSS streamline HR operations and unify its Human Capital Management, Financial Management, Supply Chain Management, and Projects Portfolio Management on a single platform. The resulting end-to-end digital integration will improve data quality and enable better decision-making through dashboards and advanced analytics, reshaping how TSS engages with its partners, suppliers, and employees.

Morten Dean Dunham, CEO, Telenor Shared Services, said, “Modernizing our HR operations is crucial to improve efficiencies and employee experience. By collaborating with Infosys to implement Oracle Cloud HCM, we are confident we will get a solution that meets our future needs. This change will further streamline our processes, provide a unified view of critical data, and ultimately enhance the experience of our employees.”

Yvette Cameron, SVP, Global HCM Product Strategy, Oracle, said, “Our collaboration with TSS and Infosys is going to help drive the future of their HR operations with Oracle Cloud HCM. By leveraging our robust HCM cloud solution, we’re helping TSS to standardize and streamline their HR processes to improve employee productivity and enhance employee experience. This collaboration will help organizations harness the full potential of embedded AI and cloud technology to transform business processes and stay ahead of competition.”

Upendra Kohli, EVP – Communication, Media and Technology (Americas & Europe), Infosys, said, “We are thrilled to collaborate with TSS on this important HR transformation journey. By leveraging our deep Oracle expertise, we have overcome significant data and system integration challenges to deliver a modern, unified HR platform. This allows us to break down silos, improve data accuracy, and unlock new levels of operational efficiency. This unique approach positions TSS at the forefront of HR transformation, driving a competitive advantage in the market.”

Trademarks

Oracle, Java, MySQL, and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company—ushering in the new era of cloud computing.

 

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. Over 320,000 of our people work to amplify human potential and create the next opportunity for people, businesses, and communities. We enable clients in 59 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer clients, as they navigate their digital transformation powered by cloud and AI. We enable them with an AI-first core, empower the business with agile digital at scale and drive continuous improvement with always-on learning through the transfer of digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. We are deeply committed to being a well-governed, environmentally sustainable organization where diverse talent thrives in an inclusive workplace.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE, BSE, NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.

 

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, or our future financial or operating performance, are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the ‘safe harbor’ under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding the execution of our business strategy, increased competition for talent, our ability to attract and retain personnel, increase in wages, investments to reskill our employees, our ability to effectively implement a hybrid work model, economic uncertainties and geo-political situations, technological disruptions and innovations such as artificial intelligence (“AI”), generative AI, the complex and evolving regulatory landscape including immigration regulation changes, our ESG vision, our capital allocation policy and expectations concerning our market position, future operations, margins, profitability, liquidity, capital resources, our corporate actions including acquisitions, and cybersecurity matters. Important factors that may cause actual results or outcomes to differ from those implied by the forward-looking statements are discussed in more detail in our US Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.

 

Media contact

For more information, please contact: PR_Global@infosys.com

Thank you for the kind introduction. It’s a great honor to speak at this event recognizing our esteemed colleague and friend, Klaas Knot.

As is often the case among central bankers, Klaas and I first met on a rubber raft floating down the Snake River in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. It was August 2011. Klaas was a rookie monetary policymaker at the time, having been in his role as president of the Dutch National Bank for less than two months. I, on the other hand, was a relatively grizzled veteran with nearly six months under my belt as president of the San Francisco Fed.

While we were leisurely cruising downstream, enjoying the wonderful views of nature, our raft suddenly came upon a black bear and two cubs who were—equally leisurely—crossing the river right ahead of us. Carefully, the raft pilot steered us near enough to the bears for close-up photos, but not so near as to get between the mama bear and her cubs—the one thing even a city slicker like me knows never to do. We didn’t appreciate it at the time, but this adventure was an omen for the many challenges we would face navigating the unexpected in the years to come.

Since that momentous raft trip, I have had the great privilege of working closely with Klaas as he wore his various hats: as president of the Dutch National Bank, as a member of the board at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and in the leadership roles he held at the Financial Stability Board (FSB).

In all the years I have known Klaas, I have been impressed by the consistently high standards to which he holds himself and others. A high standard of grounding decisions in principles and strategy. A high standard of disciplined and impartial thought and analysis, one in which the evidence leads to the conclusion rather than the other way around. And a high standard of clear and concise communication—often with quintessentially Dutch directness. I experienced all of these high standards firsthand at many BIS meetings, when Klaas respectfully but pointedly probed my analysis or conclusions.

Today, I will do my best to meet Klaas’s high standards as I describe key principles that have been critically important for successful monetary policy in the past and are essential for navigating the uncertain waters ahead. To cut to the chase, when it comes to monetary policy, central banks must prepare for the unexpected.

Before I go further, I need to provide the standard Fed disclaimer that the views I express today are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) or others in the Federal Reserve System.

Expect the Unexpected

A key lesson of the past 20 years is to expect the unexpected. Over that period, we’ve faced the global financial crisis, the euro crisis, the long period of zero or even negative interest rates, COVID-19, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and most recently, seismic shifts in the global trade and geopolitical environment.

Unpredictable change and uncertainty will certainly continue to be with us for the foreseeable future. Consider, for example, the effects of ongoing global demographic shifts, artificial intelligence, and potentially transformative innovations in our financial systems.

If history teaches us to expect the unexpected, then what does that mean for monetary policy? First and foremost, it underscores the need for principles and strategy that provide the foundation for decision-making across a wide range of circumstances. This does not mean a playbook for every conceivable situation—that is doomed to fail. Instead, it is a consistent overarching strategy that shapes and informs decision-making. Second, it means having the ability and readiness to act as needed for any situation that arises. Third, it implies being clear-eyed and disciplined in adapting to and communicating the changing economic landscape and resulting policy trade-offs and decisions. It’s important to be nimble in execution even as one is steady in strategy.

I am happy to say that all three of these features are foundational to the recent reviews of monetary policy frameworks conducted by the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve, as well as policy frameworks used by many other central banks.¹

So far, I have stayed at a very high level. I will now get into some specifics of how these observations translate into real-world practice. I will organize this discussion across three broad categories, corresponding to three key principles of successful monetary policy: accountability, transparency, and well-anchored inflation expectations.²

Owning the Responsibility

I will start with accountability: Central banks must own the responsibility to deliver price stability and have the independence of action and the ability to achieve it.

In the distant past, many central bankers believed that monetary policy could only play a minor role in reducing inflation, while others thought that inflation was completely outside of their control.³ The end result was persistently high inflation and economic stagnation. History has taught us that central banks can be more successful at delivering sustainably low inflation when they are accountable for their decisions and can act independently.^4,5 Today, central bankers around the world recognize that attaining and maintaining price stability is their job to do.

But it is not enough to be accountable and independent: central banks must have the appropriate tools to carry out their mandates. Outside of the hallways of central banks, monetary policy is commonly understood through the overly narrow lens of setting the current short-term interest rate. All the attention is on what the ECB, the Fed, or another central bank will “do” at its next policy meeting.

Of course, this focus is not entirely surprising since central banks generally use the short-term interest rate as the primary policy instrument. And the academic literature, including the Taylor Rule and all of its variants, has reinforced this notion that equates monetary policy to setting of the short-term rate. Indeed, there even has been a label attached to it: “conventional monetary policy.” By implication, other monetary policy actions that have been used—such as forward guidance and balance sheet policies—are deemed “unconventional,” and therefore somewhat suspect.

However, this narrow understanding of monetary policy is alien to the history of monetary economics and central bank practice. A reading of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz’s pathbreaking history of the Federal Reserve during the Great Depression dispels the notion that monetary policy is limited to setting the short-term rate and instead emphasizes broader measures of liquidity and longer-term interest rates.⁶ The same is true for Alan Meltzer’s detailed history of the Federal Reserve.⁷

In this regard, I am reminded of Ben Bernanke’s speech from 2002, titled “On Milton Friedman’s Ninetieth Birthday.” In it, Ben provided a clear and succinct overview of the Friedman and Schwartz critique of Federal Reserve policy during the Great Depression.⁸ Of particular note is the example of the spring of 1932, when the Fed briefly engaged in open market purchases to support broad liquidity, which was beginning to have an effect on the economy. But this policy was soon abandoned, as the Fed reverted to the view that the low level of nominal interest rates indicated an expansionary monetary policy. Ben famously finished the speech by acknowledging these mistakes. And he promised not to repeat them—a vow he would soon uphold through leading the Fed’s actions during the global financial crisis.

Around the same time, and well before “unconventional” policies had that name, monetary economists from different schools of thought—including Ben McCallum, Athanasios Orphanides and Volker Wieland, Gauti Eggertsson and Mike Woodford, Ben Bernanke and Vicent Reinhart, Alan Auerbach and Maury Obstfeld, and my own work with Dave Reifschneider⁹—described how monetary policy could be effective even in situations where nominal short-term rates were very low. These are not “emergency,” “crisis,” or “break-the-glass” policies, but those that are well within the long tradition of monetary theory and practice. Of course, how and when to use policies depends on the circumstances and the risks policymakers are facing. But this is a matter of tactics and implementation, not of principle or strategy.

Commitment to Transparency

The second principle is transparency—including the clear communication of a central bank’s framework, an explicit numerical longer-run inflation target, and the reasoning behind policy decisions.

For central banks, transparency enhances accountability and keeps them clearly focused on achieving their goals. For households and businesses, an explicit and credible inflation target helps take some of the uncertainty off the table so they can focus on planning for their future. By improving the public’s understanding of a central bank’s goals and actions, the central bank can enhance the effectiveness of monetary policy at stabilizing inflation and the economy.^10,11,12

Based on a foundation of clear goals and strategy, central banks are better able to communicate their thinking behind policy decisions and how they relate to policy goals. This is often done through economic forecasts, reports, and speeches. Transparency around the factors that influence policy decisions can, in turn, improve the public’s understanding of the policy reaction function, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of policy.¹³ Indeed, many central banks have increasingly provided detailed macroeconomic analyses of factors relevant for monetary policy, including staff or policymaker estimates of the output gap and the natural rate of interest.¹⁴

There is no single best way to achieve transparency—this is not one size fits all. Instead, the approach must conform to the institutional structures and practical realities of each jurisdiction. The Monetary Policy Reports of the Riksbank and Norges Bank, to name two examples, provide very clear summaries of the views of their policy committees, including their assessments of the distribution of the path of future interest rates.¹⁵ In contrast, central banks with large committees or a mix of internal and external members have not done so. Such differences across central banks may be more a feature than a bug: One of the benefits of greater transparency and the variety of different practices is that we can all learn from each other’s experiences as we strive to further improve communications consistent with our institutional structures and needs.

Importance of Inflation Expectations

The third key principle of successful monetary policy is well-anchored inflation expectations. This principle has become a bedrock of modern central banking, as economic analysis and history have shown that anchoring inflation expectations is important in maintaining low and stable inflation.^16,17

Well-anchored inflation expectations short-circuit so-called second-round effects in wage and price setting that exacerbate and prolong the impacts of the kinds of shocks we saw during the 1970s. They also create a more favorable short-run trade-off in achieving inflation and employment objectives.¹⁸

Central banks help anchor expectations by owning the responsibility to deliver price stability, publicly committing to an explicit inflation target, and taking the actions needed to ensure price stability. The connections between policy communications and actions, inflation outcomes, and expectations are at the core of robust policy strategies.¹⁹

Unlike the stylized textbook model of monetary policy, a robust policy approach recognizes that the economy is changing and uncertain. It also views the anchoring of expectations, or the lack thereof, as the outcome of monetary policy actions and communications, not an assumed fact.

When the Facts Change

I have talked about the importance of three key principles: ownership of price stability and independence of action, transparency about goals and strategy, and a focus on anchored inflation expectations. But like that family of black bears on the Snake River, the unexpected is always waiting around the bend. These principles and lessons provide a strong foundation for monetary policy that prepares us for the unexpected challenges and uncertainties we face ahead.

Thank you.