\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.gadgets360cdn.com\/large\/imf_reuters_1687244601234.jpg\")
<\/p>\n [ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
The International Monetary Fund<\/a> (IMF) is working on a platform for central bank digital currencies (CDBCs) to enable transactions between countries, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Monday.<\/p>\n “CBDCs should not be fragmented national propositions… To have more efficient and fairer transactions we need systems that connect countries: we need interoperability,” Georgieva told a conference attended by African central banks in Rabat, Morocco.<\/p>\n “For this reason at the IMF, we are working on the concept of a global CBDC<\/a> platform,” she said.<\/p>\n The IMF wants central banks to agree on a common regulatory framework for digital currencies that will allow global interoperability. Failure to agree on a common platform would create a vacuum that would likely be filled by cryptocurrencies, she said.<\/p>\n A CBDC is a digital currency<\/a> controlled by the central bank, while cryptocurrencies<\/a> are nearly always decentralised.<\/p>\n Already 114 central banks are at some stage of CBDC exploration, “with about 10 already crossing the finish line”, she said.<\/p>\n “If countries develop CDBCs only for domestic deployment we are underutilizing their capacity,” she added.<\/p>\n CBDCs could also help promote financial inclusion and make remittances cheaper, she said, noting that the average cost of money transfers stands at 6.3 percent amounting to $44 billion (roughly Rs.\u00a03,61,300\u00a0crore) annually.<\/p>\n Georgieva stressed that CBDCs should be backed by assets and added that cryptocurrencies are an investment opportunity when backed by assets, but when they are not they are a \u201cspeculative investment.<\/p>\n \u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2023<\/em><\/p>\n