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The International Monetary Fund (IMF), Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will provide regular updates to G20 member nations and other countries about the progress related to implementation of the G20 roadmap for crypto assets, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday.
Speaking after the virtual G20 Leaders’ Summit, before the end of Indian G20 Presidency, Sitharaman said there is no timeline yet for countries to implement the roadmap but the early phase of the next presidency, which is with Brazil, will provide more clarity. “The G20 has formally adopted the roadmap (for crypto assets). But the Indian presidency is also going to be working with the Brazilian presidency. The IMF, FSB, and the FATF will be required to provide regular updates to the G20 regarding the progress and implementation of the G20 roadmap on crypto assets,” she said.
She said that it was mentioned during the discussion at the Summit that not just the G20 countries, but other countries, especially FSB members, will have to be now contacted by FSB, G20, and others to see that an effective mechanism is placed in each of the countries so that “nowhere there is a loophole in controlling the crypto assets”.
“These are the initial days. You have the larger template, flag points. So you are going to be able to get the template out for nations to decide how they want to have their own legislative framework and other things. So it will be too early, maybe the early stage of Brazilian presidency will come out with a bit more clarification,” she said.
In September, the IMF and the FSB released a policy paper, at the request of the Indian G20 Presidency, which recommended against an outright ban on crypto-assets. Instead, it suggested introducing a licensing regime for crypto-asset platforms bringing the asset under the fold of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards.
On the G20 finance track-related issues, Sitharaman said every one of the five main agenda points, which had been discussed over the year, had been reiterated and were welcomed by the G20 members. She said there were discussions on building bigger, better and more effective multilateral development banks, adding that many MDBs are also looking at collaborations in areas such as innovative finance. The Finance Minister also said that India has signed MoUs with seven countries for digital public infrastructure to share experience and technologies. India has signed MoUs on co-operation for digital solutions with seven countries, namely Antigua & Barbuda, Armenia, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and Trinidad & Tobago. India is also at an advanced stage with a few countries to enable cross-border acceptance of UPI QR at merchant establishments, she said. She also said that the exact contours of the global Social Impact Fund proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spread digital public infrastructure are being worked upon. In his opening remarks at the virtual summit, PM proposed the creation of a global social impact fund to spread and implement Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in the countries of the Global South, with India’s initial contribution at $25 million to this fund. A senior government official said details on the fund will be made public “in a few days”.
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