Thomas Helbling, Deputy Director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, said in an exclusive interview that digital financial innovation is a thriving new track for the Asia-Pacific financial industry, and the IMF's new outlook to be released in October will include a dedicated chapter discussing the digital economy.
Thomas is optimistic about the prospects for digital payments, believing they can reduce transaction costs and increase the actual level of public participation. At the same time, he cautioned that the payments industry naturally has economies of scale, so there is a need to guard against platform monopoly and rising fees.
Thomas said the digital payments industry needs to ensure system interoperability and operability so that the benefits reach businesses of all sizes and ordinary people.
In the area of cross-border payment development, Thomas believes policy needs to both open up system connectivity and preserve incentives for service providers so they continue to invest and iterate innovations.
Regarding Hong Kong's newly launched Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, Thomas Helbling said stablecoins are still an emerging category and, compared with traditional payment tools, their global scale of application remains limited.
Hong Kong's stablecoin has just been introduced, and the market and investors need time to become familiar with it. At this stage, market recognition still has room to improve, which is a normal phenomenon.
Thomas said, "Hong Kong's stablecoin has just landed, and investors and the market need time to become familiar with it. This is a very normal phenomenon and not surprising."
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