The handbook will be descriptive and instructional, while the IMF offers advice tailored to specific, prioritized countries.
With interest in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) at an “ unprecedented ” position, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is experiencing heavy demand for advice in regard to them. In response, the IMF planned to release a CBDC handbook, deputy managing director Bo Li said in a recent speech.
The IMF official saw some urgency in meeting the requirements of central banks planning CBDCs. thus, the organization has engaged with nearly 30 countries that requested assistance in the past two years. Over 40 countries have contracted it so far, Li told, adding:
“We believe CBDC capacity development is essential to avoid a digital divide.”
In addition, poor design of a CBDC could to a variety of threats. To address the instructional need, the IMF will produce a CBDC handbook that will be “ the basis for capacity development, ” Li spoke.
The future handbook was discussed in greater detail in an IMF staff report. The handbook will “ mainly be descriptive rather than prescriptive, offering information, experience, empirical findings, and frameworks to evaluate CBDC. ”
The handbook will be finished over the course of four-to-five years, with significant funding for it approaching from Japan, the report said. It presented a tentative table of contents for the handbook, with 19 chapters divided into broad sections. The tentative contents touch on both policy and technical issues.
Related: Is the IMF shutting the door prematurely on Bitcoin as a legal tender?
Meanwhile, as policymakers consider further concrete questions relating to CBDC, the IMF advice has had to come “ more tailored to country circumstances and (..) further normative and anchored in policy experience and frameworks, ” according to the report. The IMF will prioritize assistance for “ countries that are systemically important and to countries that are fast-tracking CBDC developments but have relatively high-capacity constraints or weak regulatory norms. ”
(DEREK ANDERSEN, Cointelegraph, 2023)