A former CEO of Citigroup stated that every major bank and securities company will consider crypto trading or services within one to three years. He also hopes that global central banks will adopt digital currencies.

Former Citi CEO expects all major banks to adopt cryptocurrency within 1-3 years

Indian-American banker and former CEO of Citigroup Vikram Pandit talked about the prospects of cryptocurrency and central bank digital currency (CBDC) at the Singapore Fintech Festival last week.

Pandit became the CEO of Citigroup in December 2007 and led the U.S. bank during the financial crisis. Prior to joining Citi, he joined Morgan Stanley in 1983 and eventually became the president and chief operating officer of the company’s institutional securities and investment banking business. He co-founded Orogen, an investment company, in 2016 and currently serves as Chairman and CEO.

He explained at the fintech conference that all major financial institutions will soon consider trading or providing services in cryptocurrency, noting that:

[In] Within one to three years, every large bank or securities company will actively think about “should I also trade and sell cryptocurrency assets?”

More and more major banks are participating in crypto, including Australia’s Commonwealth Bank, Thai Siam Commercial Bank, Bank of America, And Singapore’s DBS Bank.

Major investment banks have also begun to provide crypto investments to their clients, including JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, with Goldman Sachs.

In addition, payment giants, including Visa, MasterCardAnd Paypal, there are several encryption projects in progress.

According to a Bloomberg report, with regard to the central bank digital currency (CBDC), Pandit said that while trying to modernize the paper banking system, it is “troublesome” to transfer funds around the world, and will incur a large amount of “negative” costs.

He envisioned “a central bank digital currency that can be used by you, me, and all other retail participants around the world”, and elaborated:

My best hope is that central banks around the world understand the benefits of central bank digital currencies and continue to accept and adopt them.

More and more central banks around the world are exploring the launch of their own CBDC.According to the Atlantic Council CBDC tracker, 87 countries are now exploring CBDC. Among them, 7 have been launched, 17 are pilot projects, 15 are under development, and 39 are under development.

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