The Future of Money in the Digital Age

The Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) and Princeton University’s Bendheim Center for Finance cohosted the conference “The Future of Money in the Digital Age” on October 16, 2019. Lael Brainard, member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, delivered the keynote address on current developments in digital currency and policy implications.  Markus K. Brunnermeier, Edwards S. Sanford Professor at Princeton University, presented his recent paper “The Digitization of Money,” followed by a high-level panel with Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times; Stefan Ingves, governor of the Riksbank; Simon Potter, PIIE nonresident senior fellow; and Hyun Song Shin, head of research at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

Lael Brainard took office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Fed in June 2014. She previously served as undersecretary of the US Department of Treasury from 2010 to 2013 and counselor to the secretary of the Treasury in 2009.

Markus K. Brunnermeier is also the director of Princeton's Bendheim Center for Finance. He has been a member of several advisory groups, including to the International Monetary Fund, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Bundesbank, and the US Congressional Budget Office. In “The Digitization of Money,” Brunnermeier and his coauthors Harold James of Princeton and Jean-Pierre Landau of Sciences Po look at how digitalization will transform the role of money, increase competition among currencies, and lead to the rise of “digital currency areas” that will reshape domestic and international monetary systems.

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator and associate editor at the Financial Times (London). He was awarded the Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000 “for services to financial journalism.” Wolf was a member of the UK government's Independent Commission on Banking between June 2010 and September 2011.

Stefan Ingves took up the post of governor of the Riksbank and chairman of the executive board in January 2006. He was previously chairman of the Basel Committee and director of the monetary and financial systems department at the International Monetary Fund.

Simon Potter was executive vice president and head of the markets group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2012 to 2019. He was the senior policy advisor on the Financial Stability Oversight Council at the US Department of Treasury from April to July 2011. Potter formally joined the Institute as a nonresident senior fellow on September 19 of this year.

Hyun Song Shin has been with BIS since May 2014. Before joining BIS, Shin was the Hughes-Rogers Professor of Economics at Princeton University. In 2010, on leave from Princeton, he served as senior adviser to the Korean president.