IMF examines CBDC design in context of Islamic banking, finds some dangers magnified

by Jeremy

A central financial institution digital foreign money can impression financial coverage by rising cash velocity, disintermediation, volatility of financial institution reserves, foreign money substitution and altered capital flows, even when it isn’t designed to take action, based on a examine revealed by the Worldwide Financial Fund. The unintended impression of a CBDC could also be felt significantly acute within the Islamic banking system.

The Islamic monetary system accounts for lower than 2% of worldwide finance, however it’s current in 34 international locations and systemically necessary in 15 jurisdictions. Solely two international locations, Iran and Sudan, have absolutely Islamic banking methods. Ten international locations with an Islamic monetary presence, together with Iran, are at present contemplating CBDCs, based on the paper.

CBDC design is difficult by prohibitions in Islamic regulation on usury and hypothesis. This strongly impacts liquidity administration:

“Typical mechanisms of liquidity administration — interbank market, secondary market monetary devices, central financial institution low cost window and Lender of Final Resort (LOLR) — which are based mostly on curiosity will not be permissible for Islamic banks.”

The prohibition on hypothesis additionally “implies that CBDC can’t be used for overseas change derivatives transactions.” In the meantime:

“Islamic liquidity administration devices […] proceed to develop slowly resulting from unsupportive rules, sharia-compliance complexities, restricted standardization, the small variety of Islamic banks and the underdeveloped monetary sectors in most of the international locations.”

In lots of international locations, infrastructure for Islamic banking is missing, leading to Islamic banks holding an extra of money. As a result of neither deposits in Islamic-finance banks nor a halal (Islamic regulation compliant) CBDC would pay curiosity, the danger of financial institution disintermediation is elevated, the examine discovered.

Associated: DeFi platform sees robust curiosity in halal-approved crypto merchandise

The response to cryptocurrency within the Islamic world has not been uniform. The Center East and North Africa area has seen speedy progress of crypto adoption in some international locations, and stagnation in others. Opinions differ even amongst Islamic students. For instance, the Securities Fee Malaysia Shariah Advisory Council discovered crypto buying and selling admissible, whereas Indonesia’s Nationwide Ulema Council reached the alternative conclusion. Enterprise pursuits in Iran have additionally supported the adoption of crypto for overseas commerce.