BIS taps IMF digital money chief and CBDC backer as new head of Innovation Hub

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has appointed Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli, one of the world’s most influential economists on digital money, as the next head of the BIS Innovation Hub, effective March 2026.

The BIS said Tuesday that Mancini-Griffoli will “lead work to explore technological solutions within the central bank community on innovation.” His mandate is expected to include ongoing work on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), tokenized assets and new forms of market infrastructure.

Mancini-Griffoli currently serves as the assistant director in the International Monetary Fund’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department, where he leads work on payments and currencies. He’s one of the IMF’s most prominent voices advocating for regulated and publicly backed digital money models and has previously warned about the risks of unregulated stablecoins. 

The appointment comes as the BIS Innovation Hub ramps up major projects, expanding its influence across its global centers. The Hub has become a venue for testing blockchain-inspired settlement systems and digital currency prototypes. 

For the crypto space, the move signals that the BIS may steer digital asset innovation toward regulated tokenized money, a direction that could shape how central banks assess private blockchain infrastructure and stablecoins. 

Incoming innovation chief championed synthetic CBDCs

Mancini-Griffoli, who has been the IMF’s representative to global policy forums on CBDCs and payments, frequently argued that the most stable path forward lies in hybrid or public-backed arrangements rather than fully private tokens. 

In 2020, Mancini-Griffoli stated that a synthetic private-public partnership CBDC could empower the private sector, such as blockchain-backed stablecoins, to innovate. 

He championed the concept of synthetic CBDCs, a model in which private institutions issue digital money fully backed by central bank reserves, essentially blending public-sector safety with private-sector innovation. 

He also supported tokenized financial instruments, but only when they operate within a public-money architecture that guarantees systemic stability and settlement finality. 

In September, Mancini-Griffoli argued through an essay that stablecoins carry structural risks if not backed by safe assets and strong governance.

He warned that poorly regulated issuers could expose users to runs, liquidity mismatches and loss of value. 

Related: JPMorgan, DBS eye deposit tokens as cross-bank alternative to stablecoins

BIS Innovation Hub’s high-profile experiments

The BIS Innovation Hub currently operates several high-profile digital currency experiments.

This includes the cross-border CBDC settlement network mBridge, the tokenized deposit infrastructure Agora and real-time payments and interoperable CBDC rails called Project Nexus. 

These projects demonstrate the BIS’s commitment to reimagining traditional finance with blockchain-inspired architecture. 

Under Mancini-Griffoli, the innovation hub is poised to accelerate several high-impact initiatives, from cross-border payment networks to tokenized deposits and interoperable CBDCs. 

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