In a compelling address at the Singapore FinTech Festival, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva urged nations to prepare for the eventual deployment of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). She expressed optimism despite acknowledging that widespread adoption of CBDCs is still on the horizon, with approximately 60% of countries currently exploring these digital currencies in some capacity.Georgieva highlighted the potential of CBDCs to replace traditional cash, offering increased resilience in advanced economies and promoting financial inclusion in underbanked communities. She emphasized the importance of technological infrastructure in CBDC projects, including personal data protection and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance national digital currencies. Georgieva also stressed the need for CBDCs to facilitate cross-border payments, addressing current issues of expense, slowness, and limited accessibility.During the event, Georgieva introduced the IMF’s CBDC virtual handbook, a significant milestone in the ongoing discussion surrounding the global adoption of digital currencies. She also acknowledged the crucial role of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in supporting the public sector’s experimentation with digital money. The IMF has actively engaged in analyzing necessary crypto regulations and presented a crypto-risk assessment matrix (C-RAM) to help countries identify potential risks in the cryptocurrency sector.The collaborative efforts of the IMF and BIS, as exemplified in the Synthesis paper, were unanimously endorsed by the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Communique in October, indicating growing global interest and commitment in shaping the future of digital finance.

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Information	Details
Geography	Global
Countries
Sentiment	positive
Relevance Score	1
People	Kristalina Georgieva
Companies	BIS, G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Communique, Singapore FinTech Festival, IMF
Currencies	None
Securities	None