Agustin Carstens, the head of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), claimed victory over the "crypto wars" in a recent Bloomberg TV interview on Feb. 22.
He likened the battle between cryptocurrencies and fiat money to a fierce struggle but stated that the war had already been won.
Carstens emphasized that the most crucial aspect of crypto activities is to prevent a systemic impact, likening it to a potential financial earthquake.
To prevent this metaphorical earthquake, Carstens underscored the need for regulation in the crypto space. He pointed out the importance of protecting consumers and investors and ensuring exchanges operate fairly.
The BIS's focus in 2023 will be on stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which Carstens compared to new building blocks for a modern financial system.
Regarding the G20 meeting in India, Carstens anticipates a strong statement in favor of regulation. He said that the most important body of the G20 in terms of financial activities is the Financial Stability Board, where ministers of finance, regulators, and central banks get together to decide the main rules of the game for the international financial system. Each country will decide which particular approach they will follow in terms of the alternatives that are out there.
Carstens also discussed the vision of a mandatory system, a unified programmable ledger, which aims to lay the ground infrastructure for a modern financial system. He said that the idea is to incorporate new technologies and facilitate the development of a future financial system that reduces transaction and compliance costs as well as onboard more people easily."One of the main issues related to lack of sufficient inclusion is that precisely transaction costs are very high. Therefore, to manage small payments or to give access to small firms or services to people in remote areas is still a major problem," Carstens said.
Arman Shirinyan
Yuri Molchan
Gamza Khanzadaev
