IMF's Georgieva says initial signs from US on digital deregulation are encouraging

By Andrea Shalal, David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Initial signs from the Trump administration on its plans to deregulate digital assets are "quite encouraging," International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a Reuters NEXT Newsmaker interview on Monday.

 "There has been some overdose regulation in some cases," Georgieva said, citing what she called underwhelming economic growth in the last years. "So removing barriers for entrepreneurship and growth is a good thing."

Georgieva said moves to deregulate should be done carefully without creating financial and macroeconomic risks, but that initial signs from the White House indicated that the Trump administration was focused on striking the right balance between over- and under-regulation.

"What we heard so far from the administration, from the summit that took place in the White House, is actually quite encouraging because it is a conversation about smart regulation, how to make sure that the economy can rely on the advancement of technology in that area, but do that safely," she said.

Georgieva said she hoped the United States would take a leadership role in charting a course for regulation of digital assets. The IMF also plans to host a public discussion of the issue during the April 21-26 spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank, she said.

"We feel that over-regulating technology-driven areas is a problem. Under-regulating is a risk, so finding the right balance is something that I also hope that the Fund can contribute to," she said.

President Donald Trump, who pledged during his presidential campaign to be a "crypto president," has promised to reverse an industry crackdown under former President Joe Biden's Securities and Exchange Commission, which sued multiple crypto companies, alleging they had flouted its rules. The SEC's new leadership has agreed to withdraw or pause many of those cases.

Trump hosted a first-of-its-kind summit focused on his plans for a government-owned stockpile of digital assets at the White House earlier this month, with many of the industry's elite.

A major focus of the event was Trump's goal to build a strategic reserve containing bitcoin, which he has formalized in an executive order, which also called for a stockpile of other digital assets.

Industry executives said it was good to see the administration collaborating with companies after years in which some felt they were under attack over security and consumer protection issues.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)