IMF chief says rules, infrastructure needed to prevent crypto risks

The head of International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday that crypto currencies need to be regulated with rules and infrastructure because they pose risks to financial stability.

"The challenge is that high crypto asset adoption could undermine macro-financial stability," the IMF's managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said at a conference in Seoul on digital currencies.

She said that high crypto asset adoption could affect the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission, capital flow management measures and fiscal sustainability due to volatile tax collection.


"Our goal is to make a more efficient, interoperable and accessible financial system by providing rules to avoid the risks of crypto, and infrastructure by leveraging some of its technologies," Georgieva said at the joint conference with the South Korean government and the central bank.

Rules are not meant to "return us to a pre-crypto world, nor to squash innovation," she said, adding that "good rules can spur and guide innovation."