Money at the Speed of Software
Money now moves at the speed of software, but regulators, courts and central banks do not. That gap is the starting point for a new perspective from Dr. Bhaskar Dasgupta, Chairman of the Middle East Stablecoin Association. He responds to two documents recently published by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) on AI, stablecoins and financial stability. Both the letter from Andrew Bailey of the Bank of England to the G20 and the accompanying analysis deserve close attention.
What the FSB Analysis Raises
Cross-Border Interconnection
The stablecoin market stands at around $300 billion, mostly denominated in US dollars. Dr. Dasgupta’s main concern is not size but interconnection. Picture a stablecoin issued in one country, with reserves in another, held through custodians elsewhere and transferred globally at three in the morning. That model works well until something goes wrong. When it does, basic questions become urgent:
- Who supervises it?
- Who can redeem?
- Which court has jurisdiction?
- What happens if everybody wants their money back at once?
The FSB also flags some multi-issuer structures that share liabilities but hold separate reserves. In those cases, a run in one jurisdiction could expose weaknesses across borders.
The Transparency Paradox
Blockchains make transactions visible. Yet supervisors may still lack enough information about ultimate holders, redemption claims or off-chain exposures. Seeing every transaction does not mean seeing every risk.
AI and Accelerated Stress
AI adds another layer. Autonomous treasury decisions, shared technology providers and round-the-clock trading could all speed up financial stress when it occurs. Dr. Dasgupta presents this as a scenario to plan for, not a prediction.
What This Means for the Middle East
The region has a real opportunity to become a global hub for digital money. But licences, new products and well-attended conferences are not the same as monetary infrastructure. Building that requires:
- Interoperable payment corridors
- Robust reserves
- Dependable banking access
- Enforceable redemption rights
- Operational resilience
- Dispute resolution
- Regulators who cooperate across borders
From Recommendations to Implementation
The FSB issued its recommendations in 2023, and the challenge now is implementation. No single firm can build an ecosystem on its own. MESA brings banks, issuers, custodians, treasurers, lawyers, regulators and technology firms together to help make digital money usable and safe.
Designing for When Things Go Wrong
Much of the industry conversation focuses on how digital money works when everything goes right. Dr. Dasgupta argues that it takes a village to build a resilient ecosystem, and preferably one that has tested its fire exits. The question he leaves with the industry is who is designing for the moments when things go seriously wrong.
Read more from the FSB:
Transaction Transparency Is Not Risk Transparency: MESA Chairman on the FSB’s Stablecoin and AI Analysis
Money at the Speed of Software
Money now moves at the speed of software, but regulators, courts and central banks do not. That gap is the starting point for a new perspective from Dr. Bhaskar Dasgupta, Chairman of the Middle East Stablecoin Association. He responds to two documents recently published by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) on AI, stablecoins and financial stability. Both the letter from Andrew Bailey of the Bank of England to the G20 and the accompanying analysis deserve close attention.
What the FSB Analysis Raises
Cross-Border Interconnection
The stablecoin market stands at around $300 billion, mostly denominated in US dollars. Dr. Dasgupta’s main concern is not size but interconnection. Picture a stablecoin issued in one country, with reserves in another, held through custodians elsewhere and transferred globally at three in the morning. That model works well until something goes wrong. When it does, basic questions become urgent:
The FSB also flags some multi-issuer structures that share liabilities but hold separate reserves. In those cases, a run in one jurisdiction could expose weaknesses across borders.
The Transparency Paradox
Blockchains make transactions visible. Yet supervisors may still lack enough information about ultimate holders, redemption claims or off-chain exposures. Seeing every transaction does not mean seeing every risk.
AI and Accelerated Stress
AI adds another layer. Autonomous treasury decisions, shared technology providers and round-the-clock trading could all speed up financial stress when it occurs. Dr. Dasgupta presents this as a scenario to plan for, not a prediction.
What This Means for the Middle East
The region has a real opportunity to become a global hub for digital money. But licences, new products and well-attended conferences are not the same as monetary infrastructure. Building that requires:
From Recommendations to Implementation
The FSB issued its recommendations in 2023, and the challenge now is implementation. No single firm can build an ecosystem on its own. MESA brings banks, issuers, custodians, treasurers, lawyers, regulators and technology firms together to help make digital money usable and safe.
Designing for When Things Go Wrong
Much of the industry conversation focuses on how digital money works when everything goes right. Dr. Dasgupta argues that it takes a village to build a resilient ecosystem, and preferably one that has tested its fire exits. The question he leaves with the industry is who is designing for the moments when things go seriously wrong.
Read more from the FSB: