During her opening statement, shared with Cointelegraph in an IMF press release, Lagarde told the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament that central banks and financial regulators should be open to the opportunities offered by change.
European Central Bank (ECB) president candidate and International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde stated on Sept. 4 that central banks and financial supervisors should protect consumers but also be open to innovation such as cryptocurrencies.
April she also said that blockchain innovators are “shaking the traditional financial world” and having a clear impact on incumbent players.
Changes are opportunities
She noted:
”In the case of new technologies – including digital currencies – that means being alert to risks in terms of financial stability, privacy or criminal activities, and ensuring appropriate regulation is in place to steer technology towards the public good. But it also means recognising the wider social benefits from innovation and allowing them space to develop.”
Lagarde’s promises
She also promised that, if she were to become the ECB president, her priorities would be commitment to the institution’s mandate and agility, inclusiveness and diversity. All while focusing on making sure that the institutions would promptly adapt to the rapidly changing environment.
As Cointelegraph reported in February, Lagarde claimed at the time that regulation of cryptocurrencies is “inevitable” and necessary on an international level.
India Police Can’t Move Seized Crypto Due to India’s Anti-Crypto Law
The police of Pune, a city in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, have sought a court’s directive to transfer 85 million Rupees seized from a Bitcoin ponzi scheme last year.
$1.2 million frozen
In an Oct. 3 article by the Times of India, Pune cyber police explained that the value of 244 cryptocurrency units (worth $1.2 million) was blocked in the bank account of company Discidium Internet, which was hired by the police to convert the seized crypto units into rupees.
The cyber police’s senior inspector Jairam Paygude said that the Central Bank of India was unable to transfer the money to the State Bank of India’s treasury branch in Pune as the account of Discidium Internet was frozen by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Discidium Internet is challenging the validity of RBI’s order, which prohibits dealings in virtual currencies and has requested that the RBI instruct the Central Bank of India to unfreeze the account.
The district government pleader Ujjwala Pawar said that the police request to transfer the money is pending before the sessions court.
Bitcoin ban and brain drain
Cointelegraph previously reported that the Indian draft “Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2019”, which proposes a 10-year prison sentence for anyone who «mines, generates, holds, sells, transfers, disposes of, issues or deals in cryptocurrencies”, is already prompting local crypto businesses to take preemptive measures. Rahul Jain said:
“As a startup from India, we always wanted to serve from India, but this recent complication has made it difficult for domestic crypto exchanges to operate their businesses in India. So, we are now an Estonia-based company, and any Indian law to criminalize crypto will not impact us.”
