New Economy Forum: Beyond CBDC - Fast Payments as a Competitor or Model?

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Location: Meeting Halls A&B, HQ1-3-430A&B

Video on demand coming soon.

New (fast) payment systems provided by central banks promise instant and near costless payments. These have been successfully deployed in countries like Brazil and Indonesia. So why still consider CBDC? Views differ by countries. Some say fast payment systems require bank accounts and are mostly limited to domestic payments. But that is changing as central banks enlarge access to non-banks, and link their payment systems with those of other countries. So what’s left for CBDC? Riskless money, the imprint of the sovereign, better technology? Views differ. But that debate itself may be getting old. It’s not necessarily one or the other – CBDC or fast payments. A new vision for CBDC may be emerging, blurring the lines with fast payment systems and going beyond, and combining several key public goods: a safe and widely available asset allowing for interoperability and instant settlement, public money for the unbanked, and a programmable backbone allowing the private sector to innovate. We call it the CBDC platform. 

Moderator

Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli

Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli is the Division Chief of the Payments, Currencies, and Infrastructure division at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). His work focuses on digital currencies and payments, monetary policy, foreign exchange interventions, modelling, and central banking operations and communication. He has advised country authorities and published widely on these topics. Prior to joining the IMF, Mr. Mancini-Griffoli was a senior economist in the Research and Monetary Policy Division of the Swiss National Bank, where he advised the Board on quarterly monetary policy decisions. Mr. Mancini-Griffoli spent prior years in the private sector, at Goldman Sachs, the Boston Consulting Group, and technology startups in the Silicon Valley. He holds a PhD from the Graduate Institute in Geneva, and prior degrees from the London School of Economics and Stanford University.

Panelists

Sopnendu Mohanty

Sopnendu Mohanty, currently the Chief Fintech Officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, is responsible for creating development strategies, public infrastructure, and policies around technology-driven innovation. Mohanty has over two decades of public and private sector experience in technology, operations, digital Finance, and investment strategies.

Mohanty extensively engages with global technology and financial services ecosystems and has championed notable collaborative public goods like API Exchange (APIX), Singapore Fintech Festival, Payment Rails, Data exchange platforms, and experimental programs like UBIN. In addition, Mohanty advises many international global advisory bodies on Fintech, Innovation and Inclusion. Within five years of his leadership, Singapore has become a leading global Fintech hub producing unicorns and home to many vibrant fintech companies.

He has co-authored several patented works in the application of digital technology in Finance and won many industry recognitions.

Piero Cipollone

Piero Cipollone, Born in 1962, he is married, with two children. Member of the Governing Board and Deputy Governor of the Bank of Italy from 1 January 2020. In this capacity, he is also member of the joint Governing Board of the Insurance Supervisory Authority (IVASS).

After graduating in Economics from 'La Sapienza' University of Rome, he obtained an M.A. in Economics from Stanford University. In 2001 he was visiting scholar at UC Berkeley.

In 1993 he joined the Economic Research Department of the Bank of Italy, first in the Balance of Payments Office and then as Head of the Labor Market Office. In 2007 he was appointed Special Commissioner of the Italian research institute INVALSI, and then President until 2011. From 2010 to October 2014, he was the World Bank Group Executive Director for Italy, Albania, Greece, Malta, Portugal, San Marino and Timor-Leste, as well as Chairman of the Audit Committee.

He returned to the Bank of Italy in 2014 and in November he was appointed Head of the Planning and Controls Directorate. From 1 January 2017 to 30 September 2019, he was Deputy Director General of the Directorate General for Accounting and Controls, which in September 2017 became the Directorate General for Currency Circulation and Accounting. From September 2018 to September 2019, he was Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister.

From 1 October 2019 to 31 December 2019, he was Managing Director responsible for high-level consultancy to the Governing Board on matters concerning the organization of the Bank's functions and institutional relations. Author and co-author of many articles and papers on trade, labor economics and education economics, published in a variety of academic journals, including American Economic Review and Journal of the European Economic Association, he also taught at both the Luiss University in Rome and the University of L'Aquila.

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