[The stream is slated to start at 6 p.m., ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund made her remarks in a Thursday evening speech at Harvard University.
Last week, Lagarde said that the IMF’s own currency the special drawing right (SDR), could get a boost from the growth of digital currencies. At an event hosted by the Bank of England, she said, “it is not a far-fetched hypothetical” for the SDR to replace major international currencies like the dollar of the euro.
The IMF has previously said that digital currencies — the best known of which is Bitcoin — could play a greater role in future in cross-border transactions and in countries where the domestic currency is unstable.
U.S. dollars are used officially or unofficially as a currency in many countries with a history of economic instability, and Lagarde said digital currencies could become a better alternative to paper banknotes.
However, she added that existing digital currencies had technical problems which would need to be solved.
Interest in the SDR got a small boost last year from the addition of China’s yuan to the basket used to calculate it, Lagarde said. Digital currencies could potentially join it in future, Lagarde said.
The U.S. dollar, euro, yen, yuan and pound sterling currently make up the SDR basket.
