G20 Send Positive Sign To The Crypto Market

Crypto-assets can deliver ‘significant benefits’ to the financial system, as well as the broader economy, however, ‘vigilant’ monitoring is necessary. This was among the conclusions of the third G20 meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Buenos Aires.

After the meeting, which took place last weekend, a communique was issued which, partially, covered crypto-assets and their impact on the financial system and the broader economy.

The document also stresses that crypto-assets do not pose a global financial stability risk, at least for the time being. “We welcome updates provided by the FSB [Financial Stability Board] and the SSBs [Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth] and look forward to their further work to monitor the potential risk of crypto-assets, and to assess multilateral responses as needed,” it says.

The FSB, recently published a report and delivered it to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, in which it states that crypto-assets aren’t a threat to global financial stability at the time, but ‘vigilant’ monitoring is necessary.

Meanwhile, the communique announced this Sunday, besides praising the new technology and seeing it as a force of positive change, it also outlined a set of problems that such technology might produce.

These include issues around consumer and investor protection, market integrity, tax evasion, money laundering, as well as terrorist financing.

“Crypto-assets lack the key attributes of sovereign currencies,” the communique states.

The document concludes that “We reiterate our March commitments related to the implementation of the FATF [Financial Action Task Force] standards and we ask the FATF to clarify in October 2018 how its standards apply to crypto assets.”

The communique was agreed on, by all G20 member countries. It was drafted by 57 delegates, including ministers, central bank governors and senior representatives from international organizations.