Central bank digital currency deployment: Insights from IMF

BusinessWorld B-Side

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) needs to be properly prepared to deploy central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), as these virtual currencies might pose risks to banks, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli, deputy division chief in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department at the IMF, said in an interview during the IMF Spring Meetings in April that if consumers find a more convenient payment method, such as using CBDCs, they might opt not to deposit money in banks.

“If there is an alternative that allows us to make payments perhaps even more easily, and that is perhaps even safer as a store of value, we might switch to that. CBDC might well be that form of money that is just as liquid and convenient for me to make payments, perhaps more so,” Mr. Mancini-Griffoli told BusinessWorld reporter Keisha B. Ta-asan.