Benoit Coeure will be joining the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) as the head of the Innovation Hub. He is leaving his executive board role at the European Central Bank (ECB). At BIS, he is going to be the leader in charge of the latest worldwide effort by central banks to find out the merits of fintech like digital currencies.

According to the announcement on November 10, the role of Coeure has to do with the fostering of collaboration among central banks on new financial technology. He will assume the position in the first month of 2020, and it is for five years.

In the words of Coeure, he finds the new role exciting, and he is willing to use his skills in moving the central banking domain forward as technology keeps changing nowadays. He maintained the need to utilize innovation in attaining financial stability and the promotion of financial inclusion.

The function of the Innovation Hub is to identify critical trends in fintech that may support central bank operations and help to develop public infrastructure in boosting the operations of institutions. The hub will look into areas like central bank digital currencies, worldwide stablecoins as well as other payment innovations. The website of the hub also includes research on regtech, electronic markets, trade finance digitization, and others.

Coeure once expressed his opinion about Libra, that the effort of Facebook is telling central banks and policymakers to wake up and that they should answer to worldwide stablecoins challenges. He maintained that stablecoins might support the unbanked to be part of the financial system and offer cheaper and transparent payment system. He did not fail to mention the likely risks like money laundering, tax and consumer issues, and more.

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