IMF to develop platform for national digital currencies

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is working on a platform for cross-border transactions using central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), Reuters reports.

“CBDCs should not be fragmented national offerings. […] To achieve more efficient and fairer transactions, we need systems that connect countries: interoperability is necessary,” said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

That is the main reason the IMF began developing a global platform for national CBDCs, she emphasised.

The Fund’s experts want central banks to agree on a single regulatory framework for CBDCs that would ensure operational interoperability. The inability to agree on a common approach would create a vacuum that would most likely be filled by cryptocurrencies, Georgieva said.

According to her, 114 central banks are at various stages of CBDC research. About 10 of them have already crossed the “finish line”.

“If countries develop CBDCs only for domestic deployment, we are not fully utilising the potential of the assets,” the IMF chief believes.

In her view, CBDCs can help broaden access to financial services and lower the cost of remittances. Georgieva reminded that the average fee for such operations stands at 6.3% and annual charges reach up to $44 billion.

Georgieva stressed that CBDCs must be asset-backed. Unbacked cryptocurrencies are simply “speculative investments,” the IMF’s executive director said.

In May, the IMF released a report on the first CBDC in Africa — нигерийской eNaira. The institution положительно оценило the work carried out by the country’s authorities.