Central bankers are like the tooth fairy: Their policies work only if the public believes in them. That trust was recently tarnished by the inflation crisis, when people in many countries felt as if they went to bed with a tooth under their pillow, then woke up not to a gift but to more missing teeth. So to rebuild trust—particularly with younger generations who haven’t felt much warmth from monetary policy in their lifetimes—the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and beyond are trying their hand at marketing and influencing on social media.

The central banks recognize that Gen Z and millennials get much of their news from social media and have little patience for inscrutable speeches laden with talk of basis points and “second-round effects.” That’s led roughly 100 of them to establish a presence on Instagram: As of December 2023 (the most recent available data) the number was up by more than a third from two years earlier, according to the Central Bank Directory, an annual guide. “If you’re not out there setting your narrative, somebody else will,” says Michael McMahon, a macroeconomist at the University of Oxford who advises central banks on communications.

Part of the goal is reputation management and counteracting falsehoods online. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is routinely the subject of misinformation or mockery on social media, which can foment conspiracy theories about central banks pushing up interest rates simply for the joy of inflicting pain. An Instagram video liked by more than 1 million people shows Powell apparently crashing markets just by uttering “good afternoon.” A TikTok clip with 1 million views manipulates his voice to say, “God bless my money printer.”

Attempts by central banks to use social media to reach young people range from laudable and cringeworthy. They love posting about the history and design of their nation’s coins and banknotes. The Fed’s Instagram feed is mostly filled with warnings against scams. Brazil’s bank promotes its wildly successful instant payment system used by millions of consumers. Before the Euro 2024 championship, the National Bank of Romania showed its staff playing football on its marble floors. The Bank of Canada posts video diaries of policymakers’ trips around the country accompanied by narration that, for some reason, sounds like it was generated by artificial intelligence.

Germany’s Bundesbank has an annual event for under-30s where influencers interview policymakers. The latest edition featured a session called “Your euro whenever, wherever? The digital money of the future.” For the 2023 version, ECB Governor Christine Lagarde was on hand and revealed that even her own son lost money on cryptocurrency. In a post on her own account, Lagarde explains a rate cut alongside a photo of her wearing a gold necklace that spells out “in charge” in a cursive font.

Central bankers tend to be high-paid, unelected experts whose decisions affect people’s lives in mysterious ways—but who find themselves subjected to the kind of 21st century popularity contests that influencers excel at. To make its staff seem more accessible, the ECB publishes Instagram montages of “putting the crew together”—interest-rate setters entering the building before key meetings—to punchy beats. A Bank of England video shows officials assembling for a group photo in the decidedly un-Gen Z environment of a grand room with pistachio-colored walls and gilded columns.

Their social media reach remains a fraction of that of the medium’s superstars. The Fed, whose decisions can move global markets by trillions of dollars at a time, has about 200,000 Instagram followers, versus 649 million for footballer Cristiano Ronaldo (No. 1 on the platform) or 3.6 million for Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad personal finance book series. The Bank of Venezuela is the most-followed central bank, with 1.9 million followers—though it posts little more than the exchange rate. (People on Instagram love drama.) Indonesia ranks second, with about 1 million followers that it calls “friends of the rupiah.” Lagarde, one of the few central bank leaders with a public personal Instagram account, has 181,000 followers—more than twice what the ECB has.

When it comes to explaining rate decisions and the state of the economy on Instagram, the savviest central banks hand the reins to younger staff, says Andre Spicer, executive dean of the Bayes Business School in London. People tend to trust their peers, and it’s easier to understand monetary policy or inflation if the lessons are delivered by someone who talks like you and sprinkles in familiar cultural references. “Using a person who the audience can identify with, like a young person, can be an effective technique,” he says.

Sakari Suoninen, head of the ECB’s digital content team, says Gen Z staffers often come up with ideas for its Instagram account. “They say, ‘Hey, I saw this, this could work for us.’ We rely on them a lot,” he says. In an ECB video that picks up on a TikTok meme of baby boomers reading texts written by a Gen Zer, a woman of a certain age intones, in heavily French-accented English, “The euro symbol? Iconic. She’s serving main-character energy all day.” For Valentine’s Day this year, a euro symbol made of chocolate hearts was captioned: “Roses are red, violets are blue, inflation is on track to settle around 2.”

The Bank of Jamaica may be the hippest of the bunch. Its Instagram videos feature crowds dancing to reggae bands during monthly lunch-hour concerts at its headquarters. And the bank has even commissioned monetary-policy-inspired songs from local artists. “We don’t want you too high, we don’t want you too low,” the singer croons in one. “When inflation’s stable and predictable, that’s the way to go.”

---

Irina Anghel, Bloomberg News

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.