BIS Appoints Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli to Lead Innovation Hub

According to Cointelegraph, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has announced the appointment of Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli as the head of the BIS Innovation Hub, effective March 2026. Mancini-Griffoli, a prominent economist in the field of digital money, will spearhead efforts to explore technological solutions within the central bank community, focusing on innovation. His role is expected to encompass ongoing work on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), tokenized assets, and new forms of market infrastructure. Mancini-Griffoli currently holds the position of assistant director in the International Monetary Fund’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department, where he leads initiatives related to payments and currencies. He is recognized as one of the IMF’s leading advocates for regulated and publicly backed digital money models and has previously highlighted the risks associated with unregulated stablecoins. The appointment comes as the BIS Innovation Hub intensifies its major projects, expanding its influence across global centers. The Hub has become a testing ground for blockchain-inspired settlement systems and digital currency prototypes, signaling a potential shift towards regulated tokenized money in the crypto space. Mancini-Griffoli has been a key representative of the IMF at global policy forums on CBDCs and payments, frequently advocating for hybrid or public-backed arrangements as the most stable path forward, rather than fully private tokens. In 2020, he proposed that a synthetic private-public partnership CBDC could empower the private sector, including blockchain-backed stablecoins, to innovate. He has championed the concept of synthetic CBDCs, where private institutions issue digital money fully backed by central bank reserves, blending public-sector safety with private-sector innovation. Additionally, he supports tokenized financial instruments, provided they operate within a public-money architecture that ensures systemic stability and settlement finality. In September, Mancini-Griffoli expressed concerns through an essay about the structural risks of stablecoins 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. The BIS Innovation Hub is currently engaged in several high-profile digital currency experiments, including the cross-border CBDC settlement network mBridge, the tokenized deposit infrastructure Agora, and real-time payments and interoperable CBDC rails known as Project Nexus. These initiatives reflect the BIS’s commitment to reimagining traditional finance with blockchain-inspired architecture. Under Mancini-Griffoli’s leadership, the innovation hub is set to accelerate high-impact initiatives, ranging from cross-border payment networks to tokenized deposits and interoperable CBDCs.