Benoit Coeure to Lead European Central Bank’s New Virtual Currency Project at BIS Innovation Hub

Benoit Coeure, a former member of the executive board of the European Central Bank (EBC) has been assigned to lead the Bank of International Settlements (BIS)’s Innovation Hub, starting next year, and will continue in the position for the next five years. According to the press release, Coeure is happy to join the institution and to help with innovation in the international financial sector.

The official goal is to foster international collaboration between different central banks. The Innovation Hub will identify the most important trends in the fintech industry and develop the infrastructure to boost the operations of the institutions that can be improved by this innovation.

During his mandate on the BIS, Coeure will identify in-depth insights and find the most critical trends among industries such as electronic markets, regtech, and financial trades. The group will have three established central bases. One in Hong Kong, one in Switzerland and one in Singapore.

Coeure affirmed that he will bring his expertise to the table and that the Libra was a wake-up call for central banks around the world that they should start making changes or they would be impacted by stablecoins.

Benoir Has A Bad Track Record With Bitcoin

Before entering this new position, which certainly involves the creation of digital assets, Benoir Coeure has been criticized by the Bitcoin community. Last year, he affirmed that BT was the “evil spawn” of the 2008 financial crisis, which made him unpopular among Bitcoin investors.

It remains to be seen if he will continue to move forward with his anti-crypto stance or if he will start to adopt a more crypto-friendly agenda.