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Asia and Pacific > India

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 51 items for :

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Cover FinTech Notes
Positioning Central Bank Digital Currency in the Payments Landscape
Manisha Patel
,
Safari Kasiyanto
, and
Andre Reslow
The IMF is frequently approached by central banks seeking guidance on the balance between central bank digital currency (CBDC), fast payment systems (FPS), and electronic money (e-money) solutions. Common questions arising include: Do central banks need a CBDC when already equipped with other well-established digital payments systems? For central banks with less-developed solutions: Should central banks establish one system over the other? This discussion is then compounded by the reality of constrained resources. This note focuses on the comparison of retail CBDC—that is, the presence of digital central bank money available to the general public—with FPS and e-money systems from a payments perspective, and how CBDC may support a jurisdiction’s vision on payments in the digital age. The note does not seek to advocate for CBDC over an FPS or e-money. The balance of arguments for any one system may change over time, and the choice may not be mutually exclusive in many jurisdictions. In the future, it is possible to envisage the coexistence of an FPS, e-money, and CBDC in many payment landscapes across the world. Through good design, all three systems could meet central bank objectives such as payments efficiency and supporting financial inclusion; some benefits are unique to CBDC, such as maintaining access to central bank money in an increasingly digitalized age. While central banks will make choices unique to their circumstances, it remains important for central banks to establish a strategy that allows them (at minimum) to monitor trends and core benefits of multiple solutions as developments occur, to allow them to plan, adapt, and drive developments in their payments landscape.
Keywords:
CBDC; Central bank digital currency; central bank; fast payments; FPS; e-money; digital currencies; digital payments; payment systems; Annex I. payment system case; positioning central bank digital currency; IMF Fintech Note 2024/006; infrastructure provider; payment infrastructure; Central Bank digital currencies; Monetary base; Digital financial services; Global
Cover FinTech Notes
Central Bank Digital Currency Adoption: Inclusive Strategies for Intermediaries and Users
Tayo Tunyathon Koonprasert
,
Shiho Kanada
,
Natsuki Tsuda
, and
Edona Reshidi
Among the countries that have launched central bank digital currency (CBDC) or are conducting large-scale pilots, adoption remains slow and limited due to various challenges such as lack of public awareness and trust, preference for existing payment methods, and inadequate incentives for intermediaries. Central banks cannot take it for granted that CBDC, once launched, will be adopted and scaled up easily. Forming part of the CBDC Virtual Handbook, this paper aims to encourage policymakers to consider CBDC adoption early on, by arguing that successful CBDC adoption hinges not only on technical readiness and operational robustness, but also on strategic policy and design choices that target end-user and intermediary involvement from the outset. The paper introduces The REDI Framework which outlines various regulatory strategies, education/communication initiatives, design/deployment choices, and incentive mechanisms to prepare for CBDC adoption.
Keywords:
Central bank digital currency; CBDC; Adoption; Intermediaries; Incentives; central bank digital currency adoption; CBDC adoption; IMF Fintech Note 2024/005; eAUD payment; central bank of Peru; Central Bank digital currencies; Currencies; Payment systems; Digital financial services; Financial inclusion; Global; Africa
Cover FinTech Notes
Central Bank Digital Currency's Role in Promoting Financial Inclusion
Ashley Lannquist
and
Brandon Tan
Financial inclusion is a key policy objective that central banks, especially those in emerging and low-income countries, are considering for retail central bank digital currency (CBDC). If properly designed to address the barriers to financial inclusion, CBDCs have the opportunity to gain acceptance by the financially excluded for digital payments. CBDC can then serve as an entry point to the broader formal financial system. CBDC has special aspects that may benefit financial inclusion, such as being a risk-free and widely acceptable form of digital money, availability for offline payments, and potentially lower costs and greater accessibility. However, CBDC is not a panacea to financial inclusion, and additional experience is needed to fully understand its potential impact.
Keywords:
Central bank digital currency; financial inclusion; digital inclusion; digital payments; central bank digital currency's role; IMF Fintech Note 2023/011; IMF Library; publication order; publications service; Central Bank digital currencies; Digital financial services; Payment systems; Global; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover India’s Financial System
India’s Financial System
Building the Foundation for Strong and Sustainable Growth

Abstract

India has experienced a prolonged period of strong economic growth since it embarked on major structural reforms and economic liberalization in 1991, with real GDP growth averaging about 6.6 percent during 1991–2019. Millions have been lifted out of poverty. With a population of 1.4 billion and about 7 percent of the world economic output (in purchasing power parity terms), India is the third largest economy—after the US and China. As such, developments in India have significant global and regional implications, including via spillovers through international trade and global supply chains. At the same time, India’s economic development has not been linear and has been impacted by external and domestic shocks, some directly related to the financial sector. Indeed, India was not spared from external regional and global shocks, such as the Asian financial crisis (1997), the global financial crisis (2008), and more recently, the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (from 2020) and the war in Ukraine (2022). The economy has also been hit by domestic shocks. The book covers how to strengthen the financial system to support growth and reduce vulnerabilities by discussing the linkages between the financial sector and growth, improvements in bank lending to foster productivity, and measures to further develop India’s corporate bond market. The book reflects on India’s success in leveraging digitalization to foster financial inclusion and highlights how the financial system can help to address climate issues. This book digs deeper into the various facets of India’s financial sector to understand its strengths and opportunities and to elicit policy actions that could help the financial sector better support India’s growth potential.

Keywords:
Growth and financial system; banking; corporate bond markets; macro-financial linkages; volatile capital flows; resolution frameworks; green finance; financial inclusion; monetary policy communication; credit growth; PSB dependence; private sector bank; bank capitalization; corporate bond bond market; Credit; Solvency; Bank credit; Climate finance; Global; Asia and Pacific; South Asia; Europe
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Sovereign-Bank Nexus in Emerging Markets in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Andrea Deghi
,
Mr. Salih Fendoglu
,
Tara Iyer
,
Mr. Hamid R Tabarraei
,
Yizhi Xu
, and
Mustafa Yenice
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the relationship between sovereigns and banks—the so-called sovereign-bank nexus—in emerging market economies to the fore as bank holdings of domestic sovereign debt have surged. This paper examines the empirical relevance of this nexus to assess how it could amplify macro-financial stability risks. The findings show that an increase in sovereign credit risk can adversely affect banks’ balance sheets and credit supply, especially in countries with less-well-capitalized banking systems. Sovereign distress can also impact banks indirectly through the nonfinancial corporate sector by constraining their funding and reducing their capital expenditure. Notably, the effects on banks and corporates are strongly nonlinear in the size of the sovereign distress.
Keywords:
Sovereign-bank nexus; emerging markets; financial stability; sovereign risk; COVID-19; banking sector; corporate investment; outcome variable; Annex I. data description; summary statistics; Emerging and frontier financial markets; Capital adequacy requirements; Commercial banks; Credit default swap; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Monetary Policy Communication and Financial Markets in India
Mr. Faisal Ahmed
,
Mahir Binici
, and
Mr. Jarkko Turunen
Forward-looking monetary policy communication has become a key element of flexible inflation-targeting regimes across advanced and emerging market economies. The Reserve Bank of India’s implementation of a flexible inflation targeting framework since 2016 has been supported by a broad set of communication tools, more recently aided by policy innovations such as forward guidance on policy rates and, asset purchases, increasing the predictability of monetary policy. A review of the recent innovations of monetary policy communications during the initial waves of the pandemic suggests forward guidance likely played a key role in moderating uncertainty and supporting some asset prices. We also find that the relationship between monetary policy surprises and yields for government and corporate securities across all maturities are positive and statistically significant. The results support an important role for monetary policy communication in guiding market expectations about the monetary policy stance, including the likely path of policy interest rates.
Keywords:
Monetary policy; communication; forward guidance; inflation targeting; India; monetary policy announcement; inflation-targeting regime; inflation targeting framework; asset purchase; monetary policy surprise; Monetary policy communication; Asset prices; Central bank policy rate; Inflation; Global
Cover FinTech Notes
Towards Central Bank Digital Currencies in Asia and the Pacific: Results of a Regional Survey
Mrs. Sarwat Jahan
,
Ms. Elena Loukoianova
,
Mr. Evan Papageorgiou
,
Ms. Natasha X Che
,
Ankita Goel
,
Mike Li
,
Umang Rawat
,
Yong Sarah Zhou
, and
Ankita Goel
Drawing on survey responses from 34 Asian economies and country case studies, this note takes stock of recent developments related to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and crypto assets in Asia. The survey finds that there is significant heterogeneity in terms of stage of development, but the emergence of private crypto assets has created an impetus to consider CBDCs. While most countries are engaged in research and development, with some at advanced stages of testing and pilots, very few countries are likely to issue CBDCs in the near-to-medium term, reflecting the still considerable uncertainties. Still, country experiences so far provide some key insights for others in their journey in this area.
Keywords:
Blockchain; cash; central bank digital currency; crypto asset; distributed ledger technology; payments; Asia-Pacific region; fact XI pic; fact II interest in CBDC development; fact III central banks; fact IX challenge; fact XII; Central Bank digital currencies; Virtual currencies; Digital currencies; Payment systems; Financial inclusion; Asia and Pacific; Pacific Islands; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Financial Sector and Economic Growth in India
Ms. Margaux MacDonald
and
Ms. TengTeng Xu
India’s financial sector has faced many challenges in recent decades, with a large, negative, and persistent credit to GDP gap since 2012. We examine how cyclical financial conditions affect GDP growth using a growth-at-risk (GaR) approach and analyze the link between bank balance sheets, credit growth, and long-term growth using bank-level panel regressions for both public and private banks. We find that on a cyclical basis, a negative shock to credit or a rise in macro vulnerability all shift the distribution of growth to the left, with lower expected growth and higher negative tail risks; over the long term, the results indicate that higher credit growth, arising from better capitalized banks with lower NPLs, is associated with higher GDP growth.
Keywords:
India; Credit and Leverage; Macro-financial Linkages; Growth-at-Risk; Panel Regressions.; credit growth; cyclical financial conditions; economic growth in India; GDP gap; bank capitalization; Credit; Bank credit; State-owned banks; Debt financing; Financial statements; Global; NPL ratio; bank equity; bank assets; growth from bank
Cover IMF Working Papers
Revisiting the Stabilization Role of Public Banks: Public Debt Matters
H. Elif Ture
This paper revisits the stabilization role of public banks and analyzes whether weak public finances may hinder this role. During the global financial crisis (GFC), public banks were widely used to counter the private credit crunch and prop up the economy. Using cross-country bank-level data for 125 advanced and developing economies for 1999–2018, the paper finds public bank lending to be less procyclical than private bank lending on average, particularly during busts. A key result, however, is that in developing economies with high public debt levels, public bank lending has been more procyclical, particularly outside of the GFC period. This finding suggests high public debt can limit the stabilization role of public banks during domestic busts, likely reflecting higher financing costs public banks face and lower subsidies they receive in economies with tighter budget constraints.
Keywords:
Public banks; countercyclical lending; economic stabilization; high public debt; WP; public bank; bank lending; development bank; bank borrowing costs; doom loop
Cover IMF Working Papers
Financial Inclusion: What Have We Learned So Far? What Do We Have to Learn?
Mr. Adolfo Barajas
,
Thorsten Beck
,
Mohammed Belhaj
, and
Samy Ben Naceur
The past two decades have seen a rapid increase in interest in financial inclusion, both from policymakers and researchers. This paper surveys the main findings from the literature, documenting the trends over time and gaps that have arisen across regions, income levels, and gender, among others. It points out that structural, as well as policy-related, factors, such as encouraging banking competition or channeling government payments through bank accounts, play an important role, and describes the potential macro and microeconomic benefits that can be derived from greater financial inclusion. It argues that policy should aim to identify and reduce frictions holding back financial inclusion, rather than targeting specific levels of inclusion. Finally, it suggests areas for future research.
Keywords:
WP; bank account; economic growth; incorporated firm; financial activity; household enterprise; loan officer; Financial Inclusion; Financial Development; Fintech; Economic Growth; Income Inequality; Financial Frictions; financial system; external finance; private sector; comparative advantage; Credit; Mobile banking; Financial sector development; Global; fixed cost; credit market; firm owner; firms' use