The policy document of the central bank in the field of fintech is being compiled; Not promoting digital currencies and restricting informal markets in the central bank’s agenda

Recently, in a meeting attended by representatives of trade unions, including Iran’s blockchain and fintech associations, the Central Bank’s vice president of new technologies announced that a document titled the Central Bank’s policy map in the field of fintech is being prepared. In this document, the policies of the central bank in dealing with digital currencies are also to be specified.

According to Urzdigital quote From the public relations of the Blockchain Association of Iran, in a meeting that was held at the invitation of the Blockchain Association and the FinTech Association and with the presence of Mehran Moharmian, the Deputy Director of New Technologies of the Central Bank, issues such as the contribution of the digital economy to the future of the country, the importance of employment, preventing the flight of human capital and development goals It was stated as the main objectives of this document.

The central bank’s policy in the field of digital currency exchanges is called the “restriction and transparency” strategy. Also, a “developmental and positive” strategy was stated in providing currency for imports, and a “developmental and positive” strategy was also expressed regarding the use of mining cryptocurrencies in providing foreign currency for imports.

In this meeting, the Central Bank has specified its annual goals by presenting a schedule until the end of 1404, which is in 4 layers of infrastructure, regulation, license and implementation. In the infrastructure layer, by the end of the year, the central bank is looking for data governance and a trustee body for fintech in the central bank, both of which are proposed to integrate decisions in the governing body.

Abbas Ashtiani, the CEO of Iran Blockchain Association, said regarding the policies of this document in the face of digital currencies:

Among the important topics of this document was the policy of limiting and clarifying cryptocurrencies by the central bank in the country, about which some points and suggestions were also presented. Limitation is in conflict with the stated general goals of this document, and the words clarifying and limiting together have internal contradictions.

Ashtiani added:

In response, the Central Bank pointed out that our policy is not to promote cryptocurrency exchange. In this case, organizations consider the word “restriction” inappropriate and the word “non-promotion” can be more correct. Also, the organizations pointed out the restriction of foreign platforms and the opaque underground market, which is full of fraud and there is a risk of increasing court cases due to them, and measures should be taken in this regard. The Blockchain Association announced in this meeting that this area and its nature, according to surveys among people, more than 90% have come to this area with the motivation of saving capital against inflation, and their motivation is similar to investing in gold with high overlap. . Considering the bitter experience of regulation of markets such as dollar bills, we hope that this bitter experience will not be repeated.

The CEO of Iran Blockchain Association has said in this document regarding the limitation of digital currency exchanges:

Also, the question was raised about the restriction, which part of the field of cryptocurrency exchange is meant? We have an underground market in Iran and other countries, which has been observed with the government’s pressure to regulate by restricting legal and transparent domestic businesses, not only does the transparent market disappear, but the underground market becomes highly liquid and the rule of the Rial is endangered. Because these funds are either transferred to underground markets or moved to foreign platforms, which is an example of capital flight and is considered an undesirable element in the economy. This issue was brought up and it was agreed that there should be a correspondence with the central bank and limiting the informal market, limiting foreign platforms, developing public education and economic culture, using macroeconomic parameters to guide people’s investments in this policy so that, like the rest of the world, it can be maximized. He did the protection of the people while maintaining the governance of the national currency along with the high goals stated in the document.

According to Ashtiani, one of the issues that was welcomed by the blockchain community was the development and positive issue of using cryptocurrencies in securing import currency and extracting cryptocurrencies. The CEO of Iran Blockchain Association said that he hopes that other organizations will also consider a positive and developmental policy so that we do not witness the death of mining and extraction in the country and with better facilitation we can have more production of this type of asset for the country.

Regarding the taxation of digital currencies, he also said:

Among the topics that other audience raised was the experience of other countries in using a tool called tax to restrict liquid markets such as cryptocurrency exchange. The experience of other countries has shown that taxation in a country with Iran’s economic conditions and business risk is not a suitable tool to limit the bad part of the exchange field (foreign and underground platforms) and endangers the rule of the Rial. For this reason, it is better to pursue this issue more indirectly. The experience of countries such as China and Nigeria, which had similar conditions to us in terms of economy, inflation and risks related to business, shows that this tool will produce the results of the data and its output will be in conflict with the transparency and upstream development goals in terms of governance.