The central bank of Lithuania has begun talks with commercial banks and virtual currency traders on their attitudes towards cryptocurrencies.
Though she acknowledges the risks, Jekaterina Govina, fintech strategy coordinator at the Bank of Lithuania, says:
Blind denial, reluctance to understand and to work with the cryptocurrency world leads nowhere.
Usually conservative on the matter of cryptocurrencies, the central bank of Lithuania has gathered representatives from the banking sector, virtual currency traders, those involved with ICOs, and officials from the Lithuanian Finance Ministry and the Financial Crime Investigation Services (FNTT).
Speaking at a subsequent conference, Govina said of the meeting:
It’s necessary that banks speak to those who have carried out an ICO or those who convert cryptocurrencies into conventional money. A dialog has been established and it remains to be seen where it will lead us.
AMBITIONS TO BECOME A EUROPEAN FINTECH HUB
The Bank of Lithuania requires traditional financial services to be separated entirely from ICOs and cryptocurrency-related activities. This position does somewhat restrict ICOs in the Baltic country, which maintains an ambition to become a northern European fintech hub.
Speaking of the country and its capital, Vilnius, the Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Economy, Marius Skarupskas, expressed his support for financially innovative blockchain technology earlier in 2018.
Lithuania and Vilnius have serious intentions to invest into breakthrough in this area and to become a leader on the regional and global scale.
According to statistics from Blockchain Center Vilnius, Lithuanian projects attract 10% of all global ICO investments.
Read more: http://bitcoinist.com/crypto-reluctance-leads-nowhere-says-lithuanian-central-bank/
