On Thursday, October 3, Roberto Campos Neto joined Markus’ Academy for a conversation on The Future of Financial Intermediation. Roberto Campos Neto is a Brazilian economist and the current President of the Central Bank of Brazil.
“If the tokenization thesis holds true then the 21st century may see the creation of regulated global token-based multi-asset networks” (Citibank, 2021)
The Central Bank of Brazil’s integrated agenda for the tokenization of the economy has four pieces: (1) Pix, its instant payments system, (2) Open Finance, a framework supporting the voluntary sharing of data through technological infrastructure, (3) Internationalization efforts related to the currency and Pix, and (4) the tokenization of the economy with Drex, which will include the CBDC
Pix was rapidly adopted throughout the country, with ~75% of the population using it in just a few years since launch. The system has boosted financial inclusion, increased competition, enabled innovation in payment processing, and lowered transaction costs
The Central Bank of Brazil saw it best to disentangle the retail portion of Drex from its own balance sheet, creating a two-part structure: (1) a wholesale segment for banks and payment institutions, and (2) a retail segment consisting of tokenized bank deposits, or “commercial bank digital money.” Only the wholesale segment will be recorded as liabilities on the central bank’s balance sheet. Drex will be implemented over the next two years