Nirmala Sitharaman Comments on India’s Notion of Crypto at FMCBG

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Nirmala Sitharaman Comments on Crypto
  • India’s Finance Minister says, “India views anything that is outside of the Central Bank not as a currency.”
  • “Cryptocurrencies should be regulated as they are not issued by sovereign banks,” she adds.
  • Sitharaman shared the country’s gladness with many G20 members acknowledging India’s position on crypto.

During India’s G20 Presidency, the meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG), India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addressed the country’s position on crypto regulation. She said that India firmly holds the notion that “anything outside of the Central Bank is not a currency”.

Notably, NSitharamanOffice, the official Twitter account of the office of the Finance Minister shared a video clip from the G20 meeting, quoting Sitharaman’s words:

In the clip, Sitharaman reiterated India’s position on cryptocurrency and the belief that it cannot be considered a currency unless it is issued by the Central Bank. She added that the authority is “glad that this position has been acknowledged by many G20 members.”

Interestingly, responding to the questions raised regarding crypto regulations, Sitharaman commented that the G20 nations would develop a “coordinated and comprehensive policy approach,” stating:

Recognizing the risks attached to the private virtual assets, G20 nations moved a step closer to developing a coordinated and comprehensive policy approach to deal with the crypto assets by considering macroeconomic and regulatory perspectives.

In a following tweet, the Finance Minister’s Office shared another significant comment put forward by Sitharaman, referring to the several speakers in and out of the G20 meeting, who came up with the topic of risks of crypto assets.

Sitharaman, without any elaborations, said that it is clear that the entities except those issued by a sovereign bank should be regulated. She states:

Several speakers have been speaking about risks of crypto assets & there’s a clarity that unless it is from a sovereign bank, it can’t be a currency & as it is it has to be regulated. However, the technology which governs all these is very useful for fintech.

Furthermore, she added that a more detailed discussion on crypto and its regulation would be held in the next FMCBG, in July.

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