This document is the result of a two-day, hybrid roundtable discussion by a group consisting of 23 experts from five continents. This ninth edition of the Vaduz Roundtable “Financial System 2030” continues a discussion series of forward-thinking leaders and visionaries from different institutions, disciplines, and countries.
The initiators of the Vaduz Roundtable “Financial System 2030”, Prince Michael of Liechtenstein and Thomas Puschmann, would like to cordially thank all experts for their participation and their input to this report.
With this peer group, we hope to support the definition of the future pillars of the “Financial System 2030”. As constituted in the foundational meeting from June 8th – 10th 2018 and reverified in the following roundtables, this group focuses on the following four goals:
- Establish an institutionalized peer group for a regular exchange of the financial system of the future that combines interdisciplinary expertise from practice, academia, public institutions, and policy.
- Develop a vision for the future of the financial system from the perspective of the different points of view.
- Connect the relevant stakeholders and persons through a neutral platform to discuss relevant issues on a regular basis.
- Foster the definition of relevant social, political, economic, and technological cornerstones, and standards.
The discussions were conducted in accordance with the Chatham House Rule, an approach that was invented 1927 and has been successfully applied in many discussions since. It states that anyone who participates in the meeting is free to use the information from the discussion but is not allowed to reveal who made any comment. The purpose is to increase the openness of the discussion.
There could be no better time to discuss the pillars of the future financial system than now. This ninth Vaduz Roundtable “Financial System 2030” was held during the beginning of a financial system turmoil with Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Credit Suisse as the principal actors. Although these banks’ collapses have different reasons, their failures once more demonstrate that the financial sector is and remains vulnerable. In addition to these dramatic events over the past few weeks, the crypto asset industry has also had its critical moments. Amongst the examples are the FTX bankruptcy and the stablecoin events around TerraUSD and BlockFi.
The result of all this is that both decentralized finance (DeFi) and centralized finance (CeFi) are impacted. So, what might a future, more stable, and secure financial system look like? This question was once more part of the discussion of this roundtable. This report ties in with the findings of the previous five Vaduz Roundtables on the “Financial System 2030” and develops them further based on the developments since then as well as the discussions of the two-day roundtable from March 10th – 11th 2023. It provides a more in-depth view of the future pillars of the “Financial System 2030” and shows potential fields of relevant lines of development.
The roundtable discussions are based on the structure that was identified during the first Vaduz Roundtable and was again verified in the subsequent editions. This structure revealed that the “Financial System 2030” might change with respect to (1) citizens, consumers, robots, and machines, (2) money, market structure, and business models and (3) (de-)regulation, all of which are increasingly driven by the impact of (4) technology. While the first Vaduz Roundtable provided for a high-level overview, the subsequent Vaduz Roundtables gave more insights into specific developments in each of these four fields.
This ninth Vaduz Roundtable report on the “Financial System 2030” has a special focus on each of these four areas including (1) banknote design and CBDC, CBDC and financial inclusion, blockchain use cases (citizens, consumers, robots, and machines), (2) quantum computing, sovereignty, substitution, and the splinter net, from data to AI (technology), (3) the market impact of a regulatory sandbox, e-CNY, and digital Euro (money, market structure, and business models) as well as (4) the crypto regulation dilemma and towards an optimal crypto regulation ((de-) regulation). As an outcome of this roundtable, the peer group uses the “Vaduz Architecture” for documenting and describing the developments of the Financial System 2030 for structuring discussions within and outside of this group.
September 19, 2023 Published by The Vaduz Roundtable. (Download PDF Report)
