Thursday, February 5, 2026, at 10:00-11:30 am, Vienna time (CET)

Opening Remarks
Ben Kelmanson, Director, Joint Vienna Institute

Moderator
Eugen Tereanu, Senior Economist, Joint Vienna Institute

Speakers
Marco Gross, Senior Financial Sector Expert, Monetary and Capital Markets, International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Livio Stracca, Deputy Director General, Financial Stability and Macroprudential Policy, European Central Bank (ECB)
Binur Zhalenov, Chief Digital Officer, National Bank of Kazakhstan
 

 In recent years, the digitalization of money has drawn growing attention from central banks, regulators, international financial institutions, and the private sector. How digital money is issued, transferred, and held raises important questions around competition, efficiency, inclusion, and macro-financial stability.

The webinar offered an integrated economic perspective, starting with core concepts in the digitalization of money, moving to recent developments and design issues around stablecoins, shifting to a JVI regional perspective, and concluding with the implementation experience from Kazakhstan—a fintech leader in the JVI region.

In the first intervention, Livio Stracca (ECB) explored how tokenization could reduce transaction costs, broaden access to finance, and enable programmability. He then discussed the emergence of stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as payment alternatives in response to the price volatility of early crypto assets such as Bitcoin. After outlining key stablecoin use cases and implications for the banking system, he concluded with a concise comparison of digital payment instruments and a brief update on the digital euro project. Marco Gross (IMF) followed with a deep dive on stablecoins, outlining some of their most pertinent expected benefits, and particularly their macro-financial risks. He summarized various noteworthy, current global developments regarding CBDC, stablecoins, and banks’ pursuit of tokenizing deposits, as well as recent shifts in policy choices—such as China’s move away from a conventional CBDC design. He then turned to the JVI region, summarizing CBDC activity and discussing when stablecoins or CBDCs may be more attractive depending on country characteristics. He closed with some brief hints to the IMF’s analytical toolkit for digital money analysis used in IMF technical assistance. Binur Zhalenov (NBK) emphasized the role of regulation and national digital financial infrastructure in ensuring a level playing field that supports competition and innovation. He explained how the design of Kazakhstan’s CBDC (the digital tenge) aligns with objectives including financial inclusion, stronger competition, monetary sovereignty, programmability and payment efficiency. He provided an update on the digital tenge and the broader digital-asset agenda under Kazakhstan’s unified regulatory framework and concluded with selected takeaways from a practitioner perspective.

The Q&A reflected a wide range of audience interests. Discussion covered regulatory design choices (including recent changes to the e-CNY) and the preconditions for developing countries to adopt digital money. It also examined the financial implications of stablecoin adoption and their coexistence with other digital assets. Speakers also highlighted important regulatory aspects, including coordination, efficiency, and agility.

Eugen Tereanu, Senior Economist, Joint Vienna Institute
 

Intervention times for convenience: 
Livio Stracca (ECB) from 13’ 06”
Marco Gross (IMF) from 31’ 25”
Binur Zhalenov (NBK) 48’ 20”
Q&A from 1h 02’ 25”