Federal Central Bank President Raises Bitcoin Policy Question

     The head of the federal central bank said they want to look more closely at the impact of digital currencies on monetary policy before adopting the technology.

     The comments came from a meeting of 30 central bank governors from the Commonwealth (an intergovernmental organization consisting of 53 member countries) earlier this week. The meeting took place on October 6 and was chaired by Aitur Rahman, the governor of the Central Bank of Bangladesh, with the event centered on Bitcoin in the context of global remittances.

     Government ministers and other officials also attended the meeting.

     There are now many startups working in the digital currency industry, and even countries with more advanced understanding of technology like Australia and the United States continue to struggle to gain access to more basic banking services.

     The conference was designed to look at “the potential for virtual currencies to reduce costs and increase efficiency of transactions,” and included a presentation on the current state of digital currencies by Garrick Hileman, a historian at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a CoinDesk contributor.

     According to the Federal Secretariat, while the potential of digital currencies to solve the thorny issue of remittances was acknowledged by conference attendees, some governors raised questions “regarding the impact on monetary policy and financial stability” at the meeting.

     Hileman viewed the meeting as positive, telling CoinDesk:

     “Many federal member states have expressed strong interest in cryptocurrencies, which they see as having a positive impact in terms of reducing costs and inefficiencies compared to traditional remittance services.”