A Turning Point in the Global Monetary Order: the Globalization of Payment Systems
The international monetary system is undergoing a structural shift. Private digital payment infrastructures are expanding rapidly across borders and increasingly interact with core monetary functions that have historically been governed by public institutions. On the other side of the same coin, the U.S. dollar’s gravitational pull may deepen rather than diminish. Since 99% of stablecoins are U.S. dollar-denominated, dollar settlement dominance is likely only to extend into fast-growing private payment ecosystems, even as the underlying infrastructure globalizes.
In this new global monetary landscape, international settlements may no longer be an exclusive prerogative of central banks, and will likely see increasing involvement of private payment systems operating at scale across multiple jurisdictions. This transformation poses complex challenges for central banks as they seek to safeguard the effectiveness of monetary policy, financial stability, and regulatory context. In response, political and monetary institutions are exploring public pathways such as Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and related regulatory frameworks, which will in turn redefine both the scope and the operational mechanics of monetary policy.
As these monetary issues increasingly intersect with a fraught geopolitical reordering, what’s at stake is nothing less than the architecture of global financial governance.
PARTICIPANTS
Ousmène Mandeng, Senior advisor at Accenture and a visiting fellow at the LSE
Gordon Liao, Chief Economist at Circle
Felipe Vallejo Dabdoub, Mexico CEO and Global Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Bitso
Alan Cohn, Partner at Steptoe and Johnson
Martin Galstyan, Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia
Daniel Eidan or Morten Bech, Bank for International Settlements