LONDON: The head of the International Monetary Fund has urged countries to make a more proactive push to develop central bank digital currencies (CBDC).

Eleven countries, including a number in the Caribbean, and Nigeria, have already launched CBDCs. Around 120 others are exploring them, although progress and approaches differ widely and a few have even abandoned the idea altogether.

“We may be at a point where the public sector needs to offer a little more guidance,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a speech in Singapore. “Not to crowd out, not to disrupt,” she added. “But to act as a catalyst, to ensure safety and efficiency - and to counter fragmentation.”