CBCCs can replace cash, help financial inclusion.

In her keynote address at the Singapore FinTech Festival, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva urged the public sector to “continue to prepare for future deployment” of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and related payment platforms.

Georgieva expressed optimism about the implementation of CBDCs around the world, but said that “we have not yet reached the ground” and there is still a lot of uncertainty.

“The adoption of CBCCs is nowhere close. But 60 percent of countries are testing in some form today.

Georgieva believes CBCCs can replace cash, provide resilience to advanced economies and improve financial inclusion in unbanked communities. According to Georgia, CBCCs can coexist with “private funds” as a “safe and low-cost alternative”.

Related: IMF Director Urges ‘Financial Inclusion' Through Digitization

Georgieva also highlighted the importance of technological infrastructure in CBCC projects, personal data protection and even artificial intelligence (AI) in developing national digital currencies. She paid special attention to cross-border payment support:

“As long as CBCs are deployed, they must be built to facilitate cross-border payments, which are currently expensive, slow and available to few. We must start this work today so that we do not fall behind tomorrow.

The IMF chief presented the organization's CBCC virtual book and highlighted the role of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in public sector digital currency experiments.

The IMF has recently been active in analyzing important crypto regulations. On September 29, countries proposed a crypto-risk assessment matrix to identify indicators and triggers of potential risks in the sector.

The IMF's synthesis paper – prepared jointly with the Financial Stability Board – was unanimously adopted by G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in October.

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