Howai cautious on foreign stablecoins

Cen­tral Bank Gov­er­nor Lar­ry Howai has called for a bal­anced and co­or­di­nat­ed glob­al ap­proach to reg­u­lat­ing cryp­to as­sets, warn­ing that while dig­i­tal as­sets present op­por­tu­ni­ties for greater fi­nan­cial in­clu­sion, they al­so pose risks to fi­nan­cial sta­bil­i­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly for small open economies like T&T.

Speak­ing at the 2026 World Bank Group and In­ter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund An­nu­al Meet­ings in Bangkok, Thai­land, Howai said cryp­to as­sets have rapid­ly moved from the fringes of fi­nance in­to the main­stream, mak­ing ef­fec­tive reg­u­la­tion an ur­gent pri­or­i­ty for pol­i­cy­mak­ers world­wide.

His re­marks were de­liv­ered dur­ing a dis­cus­sion on “Cryp­to As­sets and the Glob­al Reg­u­la­to­ry Agen­da: Bal­anc­ing In­clu­sion, In­tegri­ty and Sta­bil­i­ty.”