IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva stated on Monday that the IMF is developing a framework for central bank digital currencies (CDBCs) to promote international trade.
“CBDCs shouldn’t be isolated national initiatives… “We need interoperability,” Georgieva said at a conference of African central banks in Rabat, Morocco, in order to have transactions that are more efficient and fair.
“For this reason, at the IMF, we are working on the concept of a global CBDC platform,” she stated.
The IMF wants central banks to settle on a standard regulatory scheme for virtual currencies that will enable interoperability on a worldwide scale. She said the absence of a unified platform would leave a void that cryptocurrencies will probably fill.
While cryptocurrencies are almost usually decentralized, a CBDC is a digital currency that is managed by the central bank.
114 central banks have already started exploring the CBDC, with “about 10 already crossing the finish line,” according to her.
“We are underutilizing their capacity if countries develop CDBCs only for domestic deployment,” she continued.
She added that the average cost of remittances is 6.3%, or $44 billion annually and that CBDCs might assist advance financial inclusion and lower remittance costs.
Georgieva emphasized the need for assets to support CBDCs and said that when they are, cryptocurrencies present an investment opportunity, but when they are not, they are only “speculative investments.”
