On Sept 22, BRICS Webinar Series Episode #2 has been held online with the topic of “What would a BRICS currency look like and its impact on the Dollar?”
The keynote was delivered by Prof. Shiv Mehta, Ben Shenglin Chair Professor of International Finance at Woxsen University, India. He is also the author of Protocols of Money as well as a Limited Partner at a Sydney-based VC firm that invests in Metaverse and Blockchain startups.
A discussion session was followed after the keynote with two panelists, Prof. David Wen, Professor of ZIBS, Executive Deputy Director of International Research Center for Fintech Security as well as Prof. Michael Sung, a co-director of Institute of Digital Finance Innovation, Entrepreneur and Investor.
Prof. Shiv Mehta’s keynote introduced the current status quo with US dollars, BRICS in numbers and its motivation to create BRICS currency. When we reached to the panel discussion, three parties shared different perspectives in the topics of digital currency and its technology, financial inclusion, global reserved currency and central banks.
If you would like to watch the entire session, please visit our Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrpELl4qy52jO8ZIoxo0JRQ
Q&A
1. What’s the current status quo on US dollars?
Prof. Shiv Mehta:
The US dollar is still one of the most widely traded currencies in the foreign exchange market. However, more and more countries are stopping using the US dollar for bilateral trade, and most of those countries are within BRICS nations. BRICS is a group of five strong geopolitical countries that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, comprising 42% of the world's population and 26% of GDP.
2. What motivated BRICS nations to create BRICS currency?
Prof. Michael Sung
The world has been witnessing the demonstration of US dominance in international monetary system from US-China tensions and Ukraine-Russia tensions. Especially when US frozen the Russian foreign assets from the central bank and cut Russia out from SWIFT just because US is against Russia’s political action shows that the US currency can no longer be a Global Reserve Currency which should be neutral.
3. How can we prevent people from monopolizing reserve currencies or SWIFT and improve financial inclusion?
Prof. David Wen
There maybe no need for a universal reserve currency. We can use the Blockchain technology to decentralize and democratize the rules and regulations in the different sectors of the world, reduce risk and improve financial inclusion, especially in developing countries.
4. What’s the future looks like?
Prof. Shiv Mehta
Of course, I would love to live in a world where everybody can just trade with one another with no centralized entity. However, as we can see, the US is treating its national currency as an asset in its war against Russia, which is not what a global reserve currency is supposed to do. And I can say, based on recorded human history, that these kinds of wars will be inevitable in our human society, where constant rivalries and insecurities of resources exist among national leaders.
