February 12, finance ministers of the G7 nations will be having a virtual meeting for the first ministerial talks for 2021. Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso has recently requested all G7 finance ministers to have an in-depth discussion on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). During a recent press conference, Taro Aso called the need to introduce some strong policy measures for the cryptocurrency by the G7 nations.
First such meeting since Joe Biden became the US President.
“I think it’s important for us to thrash out [policy measures regarding] digital currency issued by central banks,” the Japanese finance minister added. This will be the first-ever meet among the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors after the Biden administration took charge last month. Over the last year, China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, has accelerated its CBDC development. The Chinese central bank has been aggressively testing CBDCs across multiple cities in the country. Recently, China issued another $1.5 million worth of Digital Yuan to conduct two major nationwide trials.
Digital yuan raises concern among financial regulators worldwide.
Regarding the latest digital yuan development, the G7 Nations have been cautiously observing with concerns of China taking the lead in CBDC developments. The Digital Yuan development has raised concerns that it could replace other strong currencies used in global trade, reports the South China Morning Post. CBDCs have taken the center-stage for top economic powers. ECB President Christine Lagarde has also been quite vocal about the CBDC developments as the Eurozone has already started working on a pan-Europe digital currency, aka the Digital Euro. Earlier, India also revealed its plan to ban all cryptocurrencies and develop its own central bank-backed digital currency.
