Carney Says Getting Central Banks' Role in Crypto Right Is Key

(Bloomberg) -- Bank of England Governor Mark Carney’s distrust of cryptocurrencies is no secret, but his interest in the underlying technology remains, according to comments he made about the future of central banking in Stockholm last week.

“Is our role going to be changing the payment systems and helping private providers of digital money, or will we go all the way to a central bank issued digital currency?” Carney said in an interview published by the Riksbank on Thursday. “This is one of the most exciting and important areas. And certainly the most important area to get right.”

Speaking on the sidelines of the Swedish central bank’s 350th anniversary conference, he also identified the need to address future risks in broad money and defining price stability frameworks as significant roles for he and his fellow policy makers -- even if it’s not yet time to act.

“I’m a flexible inflation targeter,” Carney said. “But there are interesting ideas around moves to temporary inflation targeting in the event of reaching the effective lower bound and these do need to be explored.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Lucy Meakin in London at lmeakin1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Gordon at pgordon6@bloomberg.net, Brian Swint, David Goodman

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