Burmese exiles expelled in a 2021 coup are urging the Federal Reserve to back their proposal to use billions of dollars frozen in the U.S. to back a digital currency. According to Bloomberg, this will allow them to create a new central bank for the opposition government of national unity. “We just need the blessing of the United States so that we can use the frozen funds virtually,” Din Dunning, minister of planning, finance and investment of the exiled Government of National Unity, said in an interview with the news agency.Amount sought by exiled opposition leader is part of…
Burmese exiles expelled in a 2021 coup are urging the Federal Reserve to back their proposal to use billions of dollars frozen in the U.S. to back a digital currency.
This will allow them to create a new central bank for the opposition government of national unity, Bloomberg News report.
“We just need the blessing of the United States so that we can use the frozen funds virtually,” Din Dunning, minister of planning, finance and investment of the exiled Government of National Unity, said in an interview with the news agency.
The funds sought by exiled opposition leaders are part of Myanmar’s reserves, which have been frozen by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since the country’s armed forces seized power in the country in February 2021.
create a new central bank
If the exiles can get support from the US, they will seek to create a new central bank to issue a digital currency to help support the opposition’s “revolutionary efforts,” said Tin Tun Naing.
He noted that a plan to issue currency based on reserves is a more viable alternative than requiring the U.S. to fully release cash, which is unlikely.
The rest of the reserves are in Singapore, Thailand and Japan
The U.S. Treasury Department, which helps enforce the sanctions, referred questions related to the initiative to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, but a spokesman there declined to comment.
Tin Tun Naing said the rest of Myanmar’s unsanctioned foreign exchange reserves, believed to total only billions of dollars, are currently held in Singapore, Thailand and Japan.
