Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, went to condemn fintech companies that are trying to issue currencies by saying that governments are the only ones that should do it, as they are best suited for the role.
The declaration was made at the Bank for International Settlements conference on Wednesday. Smith commented that he wasn’t keen on encouraging Microsoft to partake in the issuance of a digital currency.
“The money supply almost uniquely needs to be managed by an entity that is responsible to the public and thinks really only about the public interest, and that means governments,” declared Smith.
This is in contrast with the approach that Facebook is taking as the social media giant is currently working on releasing its very own stablecoin, the Diem.
The idea of such a coin existing has made regulators and policymakers from around the world worry about the potential privacy and money-laundering risks that Diem may encounter and about them possibly losing control over the monetary system.
“I think the world has been better served by what has been a movement over centuries to put that in the hands of governments. We’re not a bank and we don’t want to become a bank and we don’t want to compete with our customers who are banks,” concluded Smith.