World Economic Forum wants to bring ‘robust’ governance framework for digital currencies

The World Economic Forum (WEF), an international organization committed to improving the state of the world, has set up a consortium to design a “robust” governance framework for digital currencies, including stablecoins.

The consortium aims to bring together private and public sector organizations to help achieve financial inclusion goals through digital currencies.

“Digital currency [...] is a key area of interest for the Forum,” said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF, adding that he hopes the consortium will “catalyze the conversations necessary to inform a robust framework of governance for global digital currencies.”

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Several central banks, including the Bank of England (BoE), will help the WEF to develop a governance framework. “Governance is the core pillar of any form of digital currency,” said Mark Carney, governor of the BoE. “It is critical that any framework on digital currencies ensures security, efficiency and legitimacy of payments while ensuring fair and open competition.”

Just last week, the BoE joined hands with five other major central banks - the Bank of Canada, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden) and the Swiss National Bank - to explore digital currencies.

Other organizations that will help the WEF to design a governance framework include the Monetary Authority of Singapore, South African Reserve Bank and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), among others. David Marcus of the Libra Association, Joe Lubin of ConsenSys and Neha Narula of MIT's Digital Currency Initiative applauded the WEF’s initiative.

The news comes a day after the WEF published a toolkit for central banks to help them decide if a digital currency is right for them. The 28-page toolkit provides information on retail, wholesale, cross-border and “hybrid” central bank digital currencies, for all sizes of emerging and developed countries.

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Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.