The growth of digital money in recent years underlies many purported benefits that could boost productivity and improve economies. Prospects of greater efficiency, lower costs, and higher inclusion have the potential to improve people’s access to financial services. National authorities in many countries have considered and experimented with CBDCs, global bodies such as the BIS are exploring applications for cross-border payments, and private entities increasingly utilize stablecoins and other applications. Asian economies are at the forefront of innovation with significant crypto adoption and CBDC development.

With this growing interest, concerns about financial stability risks have also surfaced, while the ongoing “crypto winter” and the failure of important entities have underscored the case for consumer and investor protection along with better governance and regulation. While the growth of this industry has generated innovation, such as decentralized finance and tokenization, the market and use cases remain niche at this point. As the debate between the benefits and risks of digital money crystalizes, policymakers are being called upon to decide on strategic approaches and regulatory paths.

The objective of this conference is to discuss the opportunities and challenges of digital money, including prospects for use cases, the future of money and the role of central banks, the prospective cross-border use of CBDCs, the symbiosis of stablecoins and CBDCs, emerging approaches to crypto regulation, and the high-level perspective from regional central banks. The conference will be informed by current research by the IMF and relevant stakeholders, along with private sector input, and will seek to promote the global policy agenda with a regional dialog among Asia-Pacific countries.