This first-of-its-kind convening will gather international financial leaders and launch new research on critical areas in a rapidly developing field
WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 21, 2023 – The Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center and the Digital Dollar Project announced today the official lineup for their flagship convening on the future of digital currency in Virginia on November 28-29, 2023, featuring top policymakers and digital currency experts from across government, industry, and civil society.
“The future of money is moving rapidly,” said Josh Lipsky, senior director of the GeoEconomics Center, “and it is critical the United States, and the US dollar, play a key role in helping craft a safe and innovative roadmap for the years ahead.”
As over 130 countries—including nineteen of the G20 countries—are exploring central bank digital currency (CBDC), the conference will foster open dialogue between the public and private sectors on the need for international standards and increased collaboration on the future of digital currencies. As noted in the Atlantic Council’s Central Bank Digital Currency Tracker, wholesale CBDC developments have doubled since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The conference will feature two keynote addresses from Tobias Adrian, financial counselor and director of the monetary and capital markets department at the International Monetary Fund, and Cecilia Skingsley, head of the Innovation Hub at the Bank for International Settlements. Other featured speakers include Hatice Karahan, deputy governor for the central bank of the Republic of Türkiye; Tom Zschach, chief innovation officer for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT); and Evelien Witlox, programme director of the Digital Euro Project, European Central Bank.
Public sessions will include panel discussions covering the future of digital currency, domestic and international interoperability, and the conceptualization, generation, and efficient implementation of the technology necessary for financial innovation.
“It’s clear that the global economy in the twenty-first century will encompass a spectrum of both sovereign and non-sovereign digital currencies,” commented J. Christopher Giancarlo, executive chairman of the Digital Dollar Project. “This conference provides a unique opportunity to encourage the United States to assert principled leadership in CBDC experimentation at home and digital currency standard setting abroad that is consistent with US norms, values, and the rule of law.”
The conference will emphasize these five key themes: privacy, cybersecurity and resilience, financial inclusion, cross-border transferability, and competition and innovation.
The first day of this conference is on-the-record and open to the press. Day two will consist of private sessions and workshops. To register and learn more, please visit the event page here.
For media inquiries, please contact press@atlanticcouncil.org.
About the GeoEconomics Center
The Atlantic Council is a nonpartisan organization that galvanizes US leadership and engagement in the world, in partnership with allies and partners, to share solutions to global challenges. The Atlantic Council provides an essential forum for navigating the economic and political changes defining the twenty-first century by informing its network of global leaders. Through the papers it publishes and the ideas it generates, the Atlantic Council shapes policy choices and strategies to create a more free, secure, and prosperous world.
The Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center works at the nexus of economics, finance, and foreign policy with the goal of helping shape a better global economic future. The Center is organized around three pillars – Future of Capitalism, Future of Money, and the Economic Statecraft Initiative.
About The Digital Dollar Project The Digital Dollar Project is a neutral, non-profit forum focused on exploring digital innovation in money and future-proofing the U.S. Dollar in a world of decentralized and centralized, sovereign and non-sovereign digital currency networks. The Digital Dollar Project does not call for ready deployment of a US CBDC—or digital dollar – but does encourage the U.S. to assert principled leadership in CBDC experimentation at home and digital currency standard setting abroad that is consistent with U.S. norms, values, and the rule of law. Visit https://digitaldollarproject.org/.
Digital Dollar Project Media Contact
Carissa Felger / Gwyn Hodges
(212) 257-4170
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