Nirmala Sitharaman, the finance minister of India, has urged the IMF to take the lead when it comes to the regulation of crypto assets.
Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said that the global monetary authority was willing to work with India on crypto regulation, climate change, and other global challenges.
The meeting
Last week on Wednesday, there was a meeting between the chairman of the IMF’s executive board and its managing director, Kristalina Georgieva and Nirmala Sitharaman, the Indian Finance Minister.
The two talked about a number of topics, including crypto regulation and the upcoming G20 presidency of India.
According to the Indian Finance Ministry, the two had talked about the importance of regulating cryptocurrencies and developing a globally synchronized and coordinated approach for doing so.
Furthermore, the Indian finance minister also urged the authority to take the lead when it comes to regulating this market.
The statement from the finance minister echoed a similar call she had made back in April during a meeting with the World Bank and the IMF.
She had said that a global regulatory framework needs to be developed for dealing with crypto assets.
Crypto regulation
Sitharaman had warned of the terror financing and money laundering risks associated with cryptocurrencies and had said that no country had the means of dealing with them alone.
She also asserted that it was only through collaboration could countries hope to regulate crypto assets.
After the meeting with the Indian finance chief, Georgieva tweeted that the IMF was ready to work with her on global challenges, including crypto regulation and climate change.
Georgieva also said that they were in agreement with India regarding crypto regulation and also talked of the importance of striking a balance between the advantages and disadvantages of cryptocurrencies.
According to the IMF managing director, the digital ecosystem of India appears to be on steroids, with cryptocurrencies coming out quite strong even though there are no regulations in place as yet.
She added that it was essential to remember that cryptocurrencies are quite like the wild, Wild West.
A roadmap
Georgieva also talked about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had emphasized the benefits of using the experience of India in terms of digitization.
She went on to say that they could come up with a pragmatic roadmap that would have proper and concise deliverables.
The IMF chief said that it would be great for India if it is able to ensure data ownership and transparency with the help of its leadership.
Crypto regulation has become a hot topic in India, as cryptocurrencies have enjoyed rapid adoption in the country.
This has prompted the government to work on legislation for regulating the crypto sector. Unfortunately, they have not made much progress in this regard.
So far, the country has only managed to introduce crypto taxation laws and not much else, even though a bill had been slated for discussion early this year before it was scrapped.