The Rise of Digital Money


Book Description

This paper marks the launch of a new IMF series, Fintech Notes. Building on years of IMF staff work, it will explore pressing topics in the digital economy and be issued periodically. The series will carry work by IMF staff and will seek to provide insight into the intersection of technology and the global economy. The Rise of Digital Money analyses how technology companies are stepping up competition to large banks and credit card companies. Digital forms of money are increasingly in the wallets of consumers as well as in the minds of policymakers. Cash and bank deposits are battling with so-called e-money, electronically stored monetary value denominated in, and pegged to, a currency like the euro or the dollar. This paper identifies the benefits and risks and highlights regulatory issues that are likely to emerge with a broader adoption of stablecoins. The paper also highlights the risks associated with e-money: potential creation of new monopolies; threats to weaker currencies; concerns about consumer protection and financial stability; and the risk of fostering illegal activities, among others.




The Future of Money


Book Description

A cutting-edge look at how accelerating financial change, from the end of cash to the rise of cryptocurrencies, will transform economies for better and worse. We think weÕve seen financial innovation. We bank from laptops and buy coffee with the wave of a phone. But these are minor miracles compared with the dizzying experiments now underway around the globe, as businesses and governments alike embrace the possibilities of new financial technologies. As Eswar Prasad explains, the world of finance is at the threshold of major disruption that will affect corporations, bankers, states, and indeed all of us. The transformation of money will fundamentally rewrite how ordinary people live. Above all, Prasad foresees the end of physical cash. The driving force wonÕt be phones or credit cards but rather central banks, spurred by the emergence of cryptocurrencies to develop their own, more stable digital currencies. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies themselves will evolve unpredictably as global corporations like Facebook and Amazon join the game. The changes will be accompanied by snowballing innovations that are reshaping finance and have already begun to revolutionize how we invest, trade, insure, and manage risk. Prasad shows how these and other changes will redefine the very concept of money, unbundling its traditional functions as a unit of account, medium of exchange, and store of value. The promise lies in greater efficiency and flexibility, increased sensitivity to the needs of diverse consumers, and improved market access for the unbanked. The risk is instability, lack of accountability, and erosion of privacy. A lucid, visionary work, The Future of Money shows how to maximize the best and guard against the worst of what is to come.




The Rise of Public and Private Digital Money


Book Description

Following the companion paper on the new policy challenges related to the adoption of digital forms of money, this paper presents an operational strategy for the IMF to continue delivering on its mandate of ensuring domestic and international financial and economic stability. The paper begins by summarizing the forces driving the adoption of digital forms of money, and the new policy questions that emerge. It then focusses on how the IMF’s core activities and output will need to evolve, including surveillance, capacity development, and analytical foundations. It ends by discusses how the IMF intends to partner with other organization, and to grow and structure internal resources to fulfill this vision.




The Rise of Digital Money


Book Description

Rapid technological innovation is ushering in a new era of public and private digital money, bringing about major benefits in terms of efficiency and inclusion. To reap the full benefits and manage risks, authorities around the world will have to address new policy challenges. These are widespread, complex, rapidly evolving, and have profound implications. This paper identifies the main challenges currently arising regarding consumer protection and financial integrity, domestic financial and economic stability, as well as the stability and efficiency of the international monetary system. The paper argues that many of these challenges intersect the Fund’s mandate. The Fund must therefore monitor, and advise on, this rapid and complex transition for all members. The paper ends with a broad vision of how to deliver on this mandate and serve its members, including by enhancing resources, and collaborating closely with other institutions. This is the first of two papers, the second of which lays out a more detailed operational strategy.




The Rise of Digital Money


Book Description

This paper marks the launch of a new IMF series, Fintech Notes. Building on years of IMF staff work, it will explore pressing topics in the digital economy and be issued periodically. The series will carry work by IMF staff and will seek to provide insight into the intersection of technology and the global economy. The Rise of Digital Money analyses how technology companies are stepping up competition to large banks and credit card companies. Digital forms of money are increasingly in the wallets of consumers as well as in the minds of policymakers. Cash and bank deposits are battling with so-called e-money, electronically stored monetary value denominated in, and pegged to, a currency like the euro or the dollar. This paper identifies the benefits and risks and highlights regulatory issues that are likely to emerge with a broader adoption of stablecoins. The paper also highlights the risks associated with e-money: potential creation of new monopolies; threats to weaker currencies; concerns about consumer protection and financial stability; and the risk of fostering illegal activities, among others.




Beyond Blockchain


Book Description

The cryptocurrency trend of the past few years has continued to grow despite widespread predictions that it would just be a flash in the pan. Blockchain is suddenly everyone's favorite buzzword. But what if there's more to this story than meets the eye? What if Digital Currency is about to change the world in ways beyond our imagination? And what if geopolitical forces our politicians don't even understand have already inspired China and Russia to use Digital Currency to attack the U.S. Dollar's dominance over the global financial system?The Dollar has served as the world's reserve currency since 1944, and the fringe benefits have allowed the U.S. Government to borrow and spend beyond its means and run massive trade deficits for decades. Now China and Russia suddenly have a new lever to use which could upset the global balance of power. Who would have guessed that technology breakthroughs conceived by the inventors of cryptocurrency would hand China and Russia just the weapon they needed to attack the Dollar's rule over the global economy? The invention of digital cash enables government-issued digital currency systems that could completely modernize the global monetary system. The potential benefits to society are so great that it's hard to grasp their full magnitude. But a digital currency system introduced by China and Russia could upstage the Dollar and replace it as global reserve currency, causing devastating consequences for the U.S. economy. Which country wins the new digital currency Space Race could change the course of human history.There's plenty of evidence that China and Russia are already hard at work. The Chinese central bank is aggressively hiring Blockchain engineers, but has been suspiciously quiet about what they're working on. Sergei Glaziev, economic advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin is giving keynote speeches to Blockchain conferences. The Chinese central bank filed more digital currency patents than anyone else in 2017. This book explains why China and Russia are suddenly so interested in Digital Currency technology, and more importantly, what they plan to do with it. Time is short for the U.S. Government to wake up and recognize the threat that now looms over the U.S. Dollar's dominance at the center of the global financial system, and why Digital Currency technology is likely to be the challengers' weapon of choice to defeat the Dollar.Author Erik Townsend is uniquely qualified to sort this puzzle out and tell the entire fascinating story. In his first career, Townsend was a distributed systems architect - an expert in all the technologies used to create cryptocurrencies. In his second career, he was a hedge fund manager who studied reserve currency status extensively. Townsend first gives readers an introduction to both conventional money and digital currency, then gives a detailed introduction to relevant monetary history subjects, and finally ties it all together and explains how a state-sponsored digital currency system could steal the title of global reserve currency from the U.S. Dollar and change the balance of world power.




Designing Central Bank Digital Currencies


Book Description

We study the optimal design of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in an environment where agents sort into cash, CBDC and bank deposits according to their preferences over anonymity and security; and where network effects make the convenience of payment instruments dependent on the number of their users. CBDC can be designed with attributes similar to cash or deposits, and can be interest-bearing: a CBDC that closely competes with deposits depresses bank credit and output, while a cash-like CBDC may lead to the disappearance of cash. Then, the optimal CBDC design trades off bank intermediation against the social value of maintaining diverse payment instruments. When network effects matter, an interest-bearing CBDC alleviates the central bank's tradeoff.




The Global Findex Database 2017


Book Description

In 2011 the World Bank—with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—launched the Global Findex database, the world's most comprehensive data set on how adults save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. Drawing on survey data collected in collaboration with Gallup, Inc., the Global Findex database covers more than 140 economies around the world. The initial survey round was followed by a second one in 2014 and by a third in 2017. Compiled using nationally representative surveys of more than 150,000 adults age 15 and above in over 140 economies, The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution includes updated indicators on access to and use of formal and informal financial services. It has additional data on the use of financial technology (or fintech), including the use of mobile phones and the Internet to conduct financial transactions. The data reveal opportunities to expand access to financial services among people who do not have an account—the unbanked—as well as to promote greater use of digital financial services among those who do have an account. The Global Findex database has become a mainstay of global efforts to promote financial inclusion. In addition to being widely cited by scholars and development practitioners, Global Findex data are used to track progress toward the World Bank goal of Universal Financial Access by 2020 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The database, the full text of the report, and the underlying country-level data for all figures—along with the questionnaire, the survey methodology, and other relevant materials—are available at www.worldbank.org/globalfindex.




Economic Analysis of the Digital Economy


Book Description

There is a small and growing literature that explores the impact of digitization in a variety of contexts, but its economic consequences, surprisingly, remain poorly understood. This volume aims to set the agenda for research in the economics of digitization, with each chapter identifying a promising area of research. "Economics of Digitization "identifies urgent topics with research already underway that warrant further exploration from economists. In addition to the growing importance of digitization itself, digital technologies have some features that suggest that many well-studied economic models may not apply and, indeed, so many aspects of the digital economy throw normal economics in a loop. "Economics of Digitization" will be one of the first to focus on the economic implications of digitization and to bring together leading scholars in the economics of digitization to explore emerging research.




Gaining Currency


Book Description

China's currency, the renminbi, has taken the world by storm. This book documents the renminbi's impressive rise to global prominence in a short period but also shows how much further it has to go before becoming a major international currency. The hype about its inevitable ascendance to global dominance is overblown.