G20’s global financial watchdog, the FSB (Financial Stability Board) has said it does not consider digital currency as a risk to economic and financial stability. In a letter addressed to G20’s finance ministers and central bankers, the FSB chair, Mark Carney says that the financial regulator is reluctant about designing new crypto policies and instead, it’s focusing on reviewing the existing rules.
No consensus on global crypto regulations
The chair’s comments seem to suggest that there is no common consensus in the G20 as regards crypto regulations. There have been calls from various member-states for the adoption of global guidelines on cryptocurrencies.
Mark Carney wrote, “The Financial Stability Board’s initial assessment on digital currency is that at this time, cryptocurrency-assets do not pose any risks to the global financial stability,” Reuters reports. Representatives from all G20 nations are meeting in Argentina today to discuss various economic issues. Statements issued by various member-states suggested that cryptocurrency regulations were going to be on the summit’s agenda. In February this year, through a letter, high-ranking German and French officials urged their G20 colleagues to discuss implications of digital currency such as bitcoin within the Block’s format. Recent media reports from Tokyo have suggested that Japanese representatives planned to push for adoption of global crypto rules.
However, Mark Carney’s comments are suggesting that at present the G20 does not have a common consensus on how cryptocurrency regulations should be approached. The FSB insists that there should be more international coordination as regards to monitoring the quickly evolving crypto industry. “As its work in fixing the fault lines which caused the financial issues draw to a close, now the Financial Stability Board is pivoting away from adopting new policy initiatives toward the dynamic implementation and the rigorous evaluation of possible effects of agreed G20 reforms,” the FSB’s chair wrote.
Carney, who is also the current Bank of England governor, recently called for more regulation on cryptos. “Time has come for us to hold the cryptocurrency-asset ecosystem to similar standards as those of other financial systems,” he said in a statement earlier this month. The chair termed the volatility that is associated with digital currency and its markets as being “speculative mania.” While commenting on chances of adoption of global cryptocurrency regulations, Carney admitted that the rules would be on, most likely, a country-to-country basis.
“I would have more expectations for various national steps than some huge coordinated approach,” the banker said. The FSB chair also talked about his support for regulating certain elements of the cryptocurrency-asset ecosystem in order to “protect the soundness and safety of this financial system.”
Mark Carney is expected to stand down as the Financial Stability Board’s chairperson in 2019 when his term in office as Bank of England’s governor comes to an end. His comments are coming amid crypto regulatory pressures from various countries across the world. The comments are perhaps some good news for many crypto entrepreneurs in the G20 nations.
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