On June 24 and 25, the China Finance 40 Forum (CF40) joined hands with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Institute of Digital Finance (IDF) at Peking University to hold the 4th IMF-CF40-IDF Seminar on Fintech in China with a theme on "Digital Money and the International Financial System: Efficiency, Equity and Stability".
With the rising importance of digital money and discussions around the world about the challenges and opportunities it brought to the international financial system, the seminar has attracted an audience of around 200 experts from regulatory authorities, the private sector and the academia.
The two half-day seminar kicked off with a dialogue between Madam Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the IMF and Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, President of China Society for Finance and Banking and former Governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBC). The discussion revolved around digital money in an evolving international monetary system.
Following the dialogue is a panel on Use Cases of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), featuring the participation of Liu Jun, President of the Bank of Communications, Mu Changchun, Director of PBC’s Digital Currency Research Institute, and Soledad Martinez Peria, Assistant Director of IMF’s Research Department.
The following panel revolved around the Impact of CBDCs on Financial Intermediation and Services. Discussants at this session included Prof. Huang Yiping, CF40 Academic Committee Chairman and Director of IDF, Mr. Jerry Zhou, Chairman and CEO of Huifu Payment, and Arif Ismail, Deputy Division Chief at IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Departments.
The second day started with a conversation between Mr. Tobias Adrian, Financial Counsellor and Director of IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department, and Mr. Liu Chunhang, Director-General of Statistics, IT & Risk Surveillance Department at CBIRC on the topic of Digital Transformation of Financial Services – Challenges and Opportunities for Regulatory Policies.
Following the dialogue was a panel on Digital Footprint and Financial Inclusion, featuring the participation of Mr. Wang Xin, Director-General of PBC’s Research Bureau, Mr. Jin Xiaolong, President and CEO of MYBank, and Mr. Martin Cihak, Advisor of IMF’s Strategy, Policy and Review Department.
The last session witnessed a discussion on Open Data and Privacy Protection joined by Ms. Zhu Jun, Director-General of PBC’s International Department, Mr. Zhao Weixing, Vice President of Airstar Digital Technology of Xiaomi Group and Mr. Vikram Haksar, Assistant Director of IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department.
CF40 Secretary-General Wang Haiming delivered concluding remarks at the end of the two-day event.
