BitDigest April 20 · Issue #640
- Crypto pricing inches down overnight
- The People’s Bank of China acknowledged trialing its digital currency program during a segment on state-run television
- Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies flagship fund will be permitted to trade in bitcoin futures
Central Bankers Focus on Development of Digital Payment System Over Need for Central Bank Digital Currency
On Friday, the Chamber of Digital Commerce and the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee hosted a discussion headed by James Bullard, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Olli Rehn, the Governor or the Bank of Finland, and Benoît Coeuré, Head of Innovation Hub, Bank for International Settlements on “The World Economy Transformed: Reflections on Policy Responses & The Future Post Pandemic Monetary Architecture.”
All three agreed with Coeuré’s statement that the COVID-19 virus has exposed the values of technology as the pandemic has accelerated the development of central bank digital currencies and digital monetary payments. Bullard questioned the US’ ability to provide assistance checks to all citizens, suggesting that if all Americans had bank accounts at the Fed, this would be easy to do, but he stressed that while this would be very “easy to legislate, [it would be] hard to implement.” Rehn diverted from the question on digital currencies and said central bankers need to be “more practically focused and need to support real time mobile payments.” Coeuré repeated his previous statements that we need global cooperation around interoperability, financial inclusion and cross border payments.
When questioned about the introduction of the Chinese DCEP, they all said they were actively watching the developments with an open mind, and Rehn quoted a fellow economist and joked, it would be better if a “non-systemic country” like neighboring Sweden tried it first.
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