Exploring CBDCs: governance, emission, and regulatory paradigms Q4/23

Klaus Löber is the Chair of the CCP Supervisory Committee (CCP SC) in ESMA, which was established in 2020. His areas of responsibility encompass the tasks attributed by the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) to the CCP SC, in particular the enhanced supervisory convergence towards EU CCPs and ensuring a resilient CCP landscape in the EU as well the monitoring and supervision of CCPs established in third countries in view of the risks that they may pose to the EU financial system. He is also chairing the ESMA CCP Policy Committee contributing to the EU Single Rule Book in the area of CCPs.

Prior to this role, Mr Löber was the Head of the Oversight Division of the European Central Bank in charge of the oversight of financial market infrastructures, payments instruments and schemes. Earlier positions include the Head of the Secretariat of the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, the global standard setting body in the area of payments, clearing and settlement as well as positions in the European Commission, Deutsche Bundesbank and private practice.

Mr Löber regularly publishes on financial markets legal, regulatory and infrastructure issues and lectures at universities.

Alexandre Stervinou is currently Director in the Cash and Retail Payments Policy and Oversight Directorate at the Banque de France, a 50+ staff directorate in charge of strategic policy orientations for, and the oversight of, all types of retail payments, with a focus on fostering innovations in those fields (e.g. CBDC with the digital euro). The Directorate also has a direct responsibility on cash anti-counterfeiting matters. Prior to this, Alexandre held a Deputy Director role in the Market Infrastructures and Innovations Directorate and, between 2019 and 2021, he was a member of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Secretariat, where he mostly dealt with innovation related matters on the G20 agenda for financial services, and more specifically on cutting-edge topics such as cross-border payments, cybersecurity, crypto-assets and stablecoins, BigTechs, cloud services, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Between 2015 and 2019, Alexandre was the Head of the Non-cash Means of Payment Oversight division at Banque de France, in charge of policy and oversight issues for cashless payments. In this role, he was the Secretary of the Observatory for the Security of Payment Means, chaired by the Governor of Banque de France, and Secretary of the National Payments Committee. To this end, he contributed to the development of a national and European retail payment strategy supported by Banque de France, in collaboration with the private sector.

Alexandre has represented the central bank since 2008 in various international (G20, G7) and European committees related to payments, cybersecurity and innovation, notably working on regulation, supervision and oversight frameworks, and is currently also a member of the digital euro project steering group.

Alexandre started his career in the private sector, working in the financial services and telecom industry

Currently a Research Advisor at the Bank of Canada, Mohammad joined the Bank as a Senior Economist after he received his Ph.D. in Economics from the Pennsylvania State University in 2015. Prior to that, he received his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and M.Sc. in Economics from Sharif University of Technology, Iran, in 2007 and 2009, respectively.

His research interests can be classified into two broad categories: monetary economics and search theory. On monetary economics, he studies new developments in the field of electronic money and payments and explores how introducing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) can affect the implementation and transmission of monetary policy as well as the efficiency and stability of financial system. On search theory, he explores the role of information asymmetries in markets with search frictions, with applications to inter-bank, labor and over-the-counter markets. His work has been published in academic journals such as Journal of Economic Theory, International Economic Review, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control and European Economic Review.

Douglas W. Arner is the Kerry Holdings Professor in Law, RGC Senior Fellow in Digital Finance and Sustainable Development and Associate Director of the HKU-Standard Chartered Foundation FinTech Academy at the University of Hong Kong. In addition, he is Associate Dean (Taught Postgraduate and Development) of the Faculty of Law at HKU and co-founder and former Director of HKU’s Asian Institute of International Financial Law, as well as Faculty Director and co-founder of the LLM in Compliance and Regulation, the LLM in Corporate and Financial Law, the Law, Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship (LITE), and the East Asian International Economic Law and Policy Programmes. Douglas served as Head of the HKU Department of Law from 2011-2014, as Director of the Duke University-HKU Asia America Institute in Transnational Law from 2005-2016, and as an inaugural member of the Hong Kong Financial Services Development Council from 2013-2019. He is a Visiting Professor and Senior Visiting Fellow of Melbourne Law School of the University of Melbourne, a Visiting Professorial Fellow of the Faculty of Law of UNSW Sydney, a non-executive director of NASDAQ and Euronext listed biotechnology firm Aptorum Group, an Advisory Board Member of the Global Impact FinTech (GIFT) Forum, Policy 4.0 and of the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CFTE), and co-founder and an executive board member of the Asia Pacific Structured Finance Association. In 2020 he was awarded an inaugural Hong Kong Research Grants Council Senior Fellowship to study the role of digital finance in financial inclusion and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Douglas has published eighteen books and more than 200 articles, chapters and reports on international financial law and regulation, including most recently Reconceptualising Global Finance and its Regulation (Cambridge 2016) (with Ross Buckley and Emilios Avgouleas) and The RegTech Book (Wiley 2019 (Janos Barberis and Ross Buckley). His recent papers are available on SSRN at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=524849 , where he is among the top 50 authors in the world by total downloads, as well as among the top 15 law authors. Douglas led the development of Introduction to FinTech – launched with edX in May 2018 and now with over 100,000 learners spanning almost every country in the world – and the foundation of the edx-HKU Online Professional Certificate in FinTech. In addition, he has served as a consultant with, among others, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UN, APEC, Alliance for Financial Inclusion, and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He has lectured, co-organised conferences and seminars and been involved with financial sector reform projects around the world. Douglas has been a visiting professor or fellow at Duke, Harvard, the Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research, IDC Herzliya, McGill, Melbourne, National University of Singapore, University of New South Wales, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and Zurich, among others.

Adolfo Sarmiento is Head of Economic Policy and Markets, advising to the board at the Central Bank of Uruguay, he is responsible for the Monetary Policy implementation, and he’s also involved in FinTech specially in the CBDC Projects. He holds a degree in Economics of the University of the Republic of Uruguay, a Master in Applied Macroeconomics of the Catholic University of Chile and a PhD in Economics for the Catholic University of Argentina.

Kimwood Mott has spent over 30 years in the banking and finance industry in both the retail and private banking sectors. He has an extensive background and experience in banking, information technology, and project management. As the project manager for digital currency implementation, Kimwood is tasked with improving the domestic digital payments space and driving the national adoption of the Sand Dollar digital currency. 
In addition to a wealth of knowledge and skills, Kimwood brings a unique perspective to the Sand Dollar project. As a small business owner, he recognizes the difficulties of our financial landscape and sees the potential and benefits of the Sand Dollar digital currency.

Ms. Marianne Bechara is a Senior Fintech Counsel in the International Monetary Fund’s Legal Department, where she provides legal advice on Fintech, central banks legislation and supervision regimes of financial institutions. Prior to relocating to U.S., Ms. Bechara was senior legal counsel directly assisting the General Counsel of the Lebanese Central Bank and Capital Market Authority at the time. Ms. Bechara received her a Bachelor of Laws in both Lebanese and French laws from Saint-Joseph University, Lebanon, and her LL.M in Banking and Financial Law from Boston University, U.S. She also completed the Fundamentals of FinTech and Banking Law Program at the University of California, Berkeley, U.S. She is an attorney admitted to practice law in both California and New York, U.S.

Daniel Heller is an economist and financial sector expert specializing in international regulation.  He is advising financial institutions , startups and central bank in the areas of FinTech, cross-border payments and digital currencies. 

Previously, he has held various executive positions at the Swiss National Bank (SNB), the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

He holds a PhD degree in Economics from University of Bern and was a research fellow at Stanford University and the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) in Washington.

Tirupam Goel joined the BIS in 2016. From 2016 to 2020, he was in the Financial Systems and Regulation unit. Since March 2020, he has been in the Emerging Markets unit. Since joining the BIS, Tirupam has pursued research and policy work on a wide range of topics such as banking regulation, banking statistics, the interplay between financial innovation and financial inclusion, corporate debt markets and sovereign debt. He holds a PhD in economics from Cornell University, and a bachelor's and a master's degree in mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur.

Fields of interest

• Macroeconomics
• Financial stability and macro-prudential issues
• Financial institutions and micro-prudential issues