FRT Episode 135: Evaluating the Digital Pound

In this episode of FRT, we welcome Russell Wald, Deputy Director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), to discuss important developments and various projects being advanced within the Institute as a leading voice on the future of AI. These topics include the findings of the 2023 AI Index Report, the case for a multilateral AI research institute, and work via the Center for Research on Foundation Models that, among other findings, sheds light on possible implications of European efforts to regulate AI. Russell also discusses key focus areas in human-centered artificial intelligence for 2024, high-level efforts to develop international frameworks and their importance, aspects of the Biden Administration’s Executive Order, HAI’s role in the launch of the Stanford Emerging Technology Review, potential areas of importance for financial institutions’ deployment of AI, and more. Additional recent HAI reports of interest may include a January 2024 Policy Brief titled, “Safety Risks from Customizing Foundation Models via Fine-tuning” and a February 2024 Working Paper titled, “Inspiring Action: Identifying the Social Sector AI Opportunity Gap.”

Digital Money and Future Scenarios for High-Value Flows Developments in tokenization and distributed ledger technology (DLT) are opening up new fronts in the evolution of digital money. High-value transactions—including large transfers between banks, payments by big corporations, and multi-billion dollar investments by companies, asset managers, and asset owners like pension and sovereign wealth funds—are coming into range as market actors seek programmability, automation, and efficiencies across a broader array of transaction types. In this episode of FRT, we explore potential scenarios for how these developments might play out with the authors of a recent report by Oliver Wyman. Michael Wagner, Partner and Larissa De Lima, Senior Fellow Future of Money Initiative, explore the drivers behind this competition, the “replumbing of the financial system” underway, four visions for the way technology and policy developments may transform the business of high-value flows, and potential paths that market participants can take to realize each vision. These include the Evolution of TradFi, Rise of Digital Intermediaries, Universal Networks, and Sovereign Expansion. This discussion of competition between “new and old money” will be a part of dialogues during the World Economic Forum in Davos so check out this episode to hear a preview of the issues and trends being explored

In this episode of FRT, Morten Bech, Head of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub’s Swiss Centre, discusses Project Tourbillon, a recently completed project that developed two prototypes studying the trade-offs between privacy, security, and scalability for retail CBDCs, and how one might succeed at all three. Achieving this trifecta has been the focus of many engineers in the digital assets space. The lessons from Project Tourbillon are applicable to projects beyond retail CBDCs.

In this episode of FRT, Julia Sterling, Vice President in Business Development for Big Data & Advanced Analytics at Commerzbank, discusses artificial intelligence, the EU’s AI Act, and the connection to data policies – particularly cross-border policies.

In this episode of FRT, Ana Maria Prieto, Director of Payments System at the Central Bank of Colombia (Banco de la República), discusses the new payments infrastructure being built in Colombia, key objectives of the new system such as interoperability and security, and the timeline envisioned for this project. Ana Maria also provides insights on how private and public collaboration is fundamental for the new payments model in Colombia and how the different roles played by central banks and private actors complement each other to reach the end-users in the new infrastructure. Ana Maria also shares her views on how to navigate the potential conflicts of interest that can arise from having an actor with two hats: regulator on one side, and market player on the other. The chapter ends with considerations around cross-border payments, the benefits of cross-border collaboration, and the role Colombia visualizes for retail and wholesale CBDCs.

In this episode of FRT, Ronit Ghose, Global Head of the Future of Finance think tank at Citi Global Insights, discusses the future of money, tokens, and games. Each year, Ronit’s team publishes the “Citi GPS: Global Perspectives and Solutions” report exploring trends in digital money. This year’s report, subtitled “Blockchain’s Next Billion Users and Trillions in Value” explores why innovation in money is different than innovation in other assets.

In this episode of FRT, Fabian Astic, Managing Director and Global Head of Decentralized Finance and Digital Assets at Moody’s Investors Service, asks critical questions like “Why do we need digital currencies?” and “What is their value?” Fabian analyzes the use cases for various types of digital currency, from cyptoassets to stablecoins to deposit tokens to CBDCs, and closes by sharing his views on the future of decentralized finance.

In this episode of FRT, Tom Mutton, Director of Fintech at the Bank of England, discusses the Bank’s joint consultative report with HM Treasury, titled “The digital pound: a new form of money for households and businesses?” Tom additionally comments on the future of financial infrastructure, addressing privacy, interoperability, public vs. private solutions, and the future of decentralized technologies.

In this episode of FRT, Yue Hong Zhang of Boston Consulting Group (Hong Kong) and Daniel Wu of Amazon Web Services (APAC) discuss emerging technologies and the future of financial infrastructure, including the development of cloud, artificial intelligence, digital assets, blockchain technology, and the policy environment shaping the adoption of these technologies in the Asia Pacific region.

This episode of FRT reflects on the role of cloud computing in the future of finance, and the recent US Treasury Report on the topic, with Howard Boville, Head of IBM Cloud Platform & Technology Lifecycle Services. Cloud computing is an essential tool for the digital transformation of financial services, but its rise has been accompanied by a global policy dialogue on the role of cloud computing and the appropriate frameworks to manage risk and oversight. The US official sector had been comparatively quiet on the subject; however, a recent report from the US Treasury has put forward a comprehensive review. The report, The Financial Services Sector’s Adoption of Cloud Services, takes stock of financial service applications moving to the cloud and the benefits it can deliver as well as exploring the risks and potential policy and regulatory responses. Various regulators and global standard setters have considered these issues for some time, and a variety of perspectives have emerged, particularly in the EU and some emerging markets. Now, the home jurisdiction for the major cloud service providers has publicly outlined their views. Howard discusses trends in digital transformation, some of the challenges financial firms are solving in their cloud migration, and how firms are addressing the risks outlined in the Treasury report. Configuration of cloud services by the financial institution is one example of a place where more talent, expertise and communication between FIs, regulators/supervisors, and the cloud service providers could help advance understanding and support for critical applications migrating to the cloud. Addressing cyber risk is another focal point. Before the episode concludes we also look ahead at developments in AI and quantum computing as related developments for the future of finance.