According to Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director, the Fund just released a new paper about digital currencies. In her opinion, the move towards CBDCs is gaining momentum, driven by the ingenuity of the central banks. Currently, around 100 countries are exploring CBDCs at one level or another. Some researching, some testing, and a few already distributing CBDC to the public.

“There is no universal case for CBDCs because each economy is different. But financial stability and privacy considerations are paramount to the design of CBDCs,” Georgieva stressed.

She added that central banks are committed to minimizing the impact of CBDCs on financial intermediation and credit provision. 

“The countries we studied offer CBDCs that are not interest-bearing – which makes a CBDC useful, but not as attractive as a vehicle for savings as traditional bank deposits. Introducing a CBDC is about finding the delicate balance between developments on the design front and the policy front,” IMF Managing Director said.

“Countries are seeking to preserve key aspects of their traditional monetary and financial systems while experimenting with new digital forms of money. For those experiments to succeed, the paper we’re releasing today shows that policymakers will need to resolve many open questions, technical obstacles, and policy tradeoffs,” Kristalina Georgieva added.

She is convinced though that the history of money is entering a new chapter.

(WBJ)