The Legal Department and the Institute of the IMF held their eighth biennial seminar for legal advisers of central banks of member countries on May 7-17,2000. The papers presented in this volume are based on presentations made by the seminar participants. The seminar covered a broad range of topics, including activities of the IMF and other international financial institutions, sovereign debt restructuring, the architecture of the international financial system, and money laundering and the financing of terrorism. In addition, participants addressed the role of central banks, payment systems, securities, technology in the financial sector, and monetary arrangements.

This paper analyzes the legal foundations of central bank digital currency (CBDC) under central bank and monetary law. Absent strong legal foundations, the issuance of CBDC poses legal, financial and reputational risks for central banks. While the appropriate design of the legal framework will up to a degree depend on the design features of the CBDC, some general conclusions can be made. First, most central bank laws do not currently authorize the issuance of CBDC to the general public. Second, from a monetary law perspective, it is not evident that “currency” status can be attributed to CBDC. While the central bank law issue can be solved through rather straithforward law reform, the monetary law issue poses fundmental legal policy challenges.

The papers published in this volume are based on an IMF seminar held in 2000 that covered a broad range of topics on monetary and financial law, such as the liberalization of capital movements, data dissemination, responsibilities of central banks, and the IMF’s goals in financial surveillance and architecture. Participants addressed recent issues in the financial sector, including those related to payment systems and supervision of financial institutions. Updates dealt with Internet banking, bank secrecy, and currency arrangements-including dollarization. Participants discussed the recent activities of the other international financial institutions, which included the European Central Bank and the International Finance Corporation. Prevention of financial crises was also discussed, with reference to the distinct roles of the IMF and the private sector.

“Restoring Financial Stability-The Legal Response” is the theme of the sixth volume of “Current Developments in Monetary and Financial Law.” The book covers a range of issues: frameworks and regulatory reforms in the United States, European Union, and Japan that address systemic risk; the international dimension of financial stability; the regulation of complex financial products; cross-border banking supervision; capital adequacy; and corporate and household debt restructuring. The chapters are based on presentations from a seminar hosted by the IMF Legal Department, the Ministry of Finance of Japan, the Financial Services Agency of Japan, and the Bank of Japan, with the assistance of the IMF Institute. The contributors to the volume come from both the public and private sectors, and include academics, lawyers practicing in the fields of banking and financial law, and officials from central banks, supervisory and regulatory agencies, and standard-setting bodies.

The Legal Department and the Institute of the IMF held their ninth biennial seminar for legal advisors of IMF member countries’ central banks, and the papers published in this volume are based on presentations made by officials attending this seminar. The seminar covered a broad range of topics, including sovereign debt restructuring, money laundering and the financing of terrorism, financial system and banking supervision, conflicts of interest and market discipline in the financial sector, insolvency, and other issues related to central banking.

This book is a leading authority on central banking and financial regulation, including detailed legal and policy analysis of the institutions that safeguard monetary stability and financial stability nationally, at the EU level and globally. The new edition has been renamed (previously 'Legal Foundations of International Monetary Stability') to better reflect the book's breadth of coverage, which includes an in-depth study of central banking, a fresh look at supervision, regulation and crisis management after the global financial crisis. It also includes updated material on the law of the European Central Bank and banking union, the law of the IMF and work undertaken by international standard-setters, in particular the FSB and the Basel Committee. Part I focuses on national developments, Part II deals with EU developments and Part III examines international developments. Each of these sections commences with a historical chapter, then analyses the framework of the 'monetary architecture'. Finally, each part considers the 'financial architecture' with regard to the functions of financial supervision (micro and macro) and surveillance, regulation and crisis management, including lender of last resort and resolution.

In 1978, China embarked on a gradual but far-reaching reform of its economic system. This paper focuses on the achievements so far in reforming the financial sector, the legal framework for financial transactions, the payments system, and the monetary policy and foreign exchange system. It also analyzes the tasks ahead to achieve the goals set in these areas for the year 2000.