IMF Cautions Central Banks May Have to Rethink What Constitutes Reserves
The IMF warns that central banks may have to rethink what constitutes their reserve currency holdings. In a recent study, the global lender points to the changing geopolitical landscape, technological advances and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as events likely to influence the composition of reserves. Advances in Financial Technologies In addition to the US dollar, other currencies like the Euro, the Japanese and the British pound act as settlement currencies in global trade. Still, the US dollar dominates when it comes to its status as the world’s reserve currency. However,....
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Central banks in every country always keep a certain level of financial reserves. In most cases, these reserves will consist of foreign fiat currencies, as well as precious metals, such as gold and silver. But the Central Bank of Barbados is looking at whether or not digital currencies should become a part of their reserve holdings portfolio. Due to the....
Bitfinex’s “bail-in” scheme after a major theft raised questions regarding its risk and fund management. What can we learn from the recent bail-in event? To answer, a look at the result of the bail-in, and how it differs from central bank bailouts is necessary. With central bank bailout schemes in place around the world, many who are new to the concept....
The Central Bank of Barbados is considering to include cryptocurrencies in the portfolio of international reserves according to its latest document drafted by Winston Moore and Jeremy Stephen. Most central banks worldwide maintain a portfolio of assets which include gold, foreign exchange and internationally recognised reserve assets to allow countries to settle international transactions. Since the beginning of 2015, central banks such as the Bank of England have begun to explore the possibility of utilizing cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and its underlying technology, the distributed....
The Nigerian central bank governor and bitcoin critic, Godwin Emefiele, recently remarked that the rise of fintechs and cryptocurrencies among other technologies have forced banks and financial institutions to change the way they operate. According to Emefiele, this requires the central bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) to rethink the way it regulates the financial system. Rethinking Financial System Regulation The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, reportedly said the MPC, which was set to meet on July 18 and 19, must chart a new path that changes....
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has published a new white paper on distributed ledger tech. The HKMA, which is Hong Kong’s de facto central bank, produced the paper in partnership with the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI). The move comes just over two months after the two sides began collaborating on blockchain applications, a process that has seen activity amongst Hong Kong banks looking to build a system for sharing mortgage valuations. The HKMA is one of a growing body of central banks experimenting with or exploring applications. In the past....