Evidence emerging from the first central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) around the world suggests there is no one-size-fits-all model as stability and privacy are designed into systems, the head of the International Monetary Fund has said.

Roughly 100 countries are now looking at CBDCs, the IMF estimates, and it published a study on Wednesday looking at six nations including China, Sweden and the Bahamas where digital money is already up and running or at an advanced stage.

In a speech on the report, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said there were a number of key lessons from these early experiences.

If CBDCs were designed “prudently” they could potentially offer more resilience, make it easier for people to have access to bank-type services and lower the cost of moving around money.

And they should be safer too, compared to “unbacked cryptoassets that are inherently volatile”, Georgieva added, referring to the likes of bitcoin as well as more regulated “stablecoins”, which are generally linked to a mainstream currency or something such as gold.

“First, no one size fits all,” Georgieva said.

Financial stability and privacy considerations also are paramount to the design of CBDCs, while there needed to be balance between developments on the design front and on the policy front.

“These are still early days for CBDCs and we don’t quite know how far and how fast they will go,” Georgieva added. – Reuters