Over the course of history, money has relied on trust.  Mario Pisani argues that trust is a function of the capacity of state institutions to safeguard the value of money. Fundamentally, this is because traditionally the safest assets have been those that give you a claim on the state itself: state-issued money, central bank assets, or government securities. He explores how central banks and treasuries have through history directly or indirectly underpinned trust in money. Rhys Bidder looks at these debates from a contemporary perspective – acknowledging that many novel forms of money are currently emerging, stimulated in part by the advent of blockchain. While technological advances may be new, trust in central banks and in governments’ fiscal rectitude continue to be key – not only in the context of CBDC and tokenized deposits, but also, perhaps less obviously, in the case of stablecoins.

18:00 - 18.15 | Registration
18.15 - 19.15 | Panel and audience Q&A
19.15 - 20.15  | Networking drinks reception

About the speakers:

 Mario Pisani is a Trustee of the Royal Mint Museum. He is also a Visiting Professor at the King’s College London where he teaches ‘The Treasury and an introduction to Economic History – in partnership with HM Treasury’. He is also on the Council of the Society of Professional Economists and chairs the Treasury History Network.

 Rhys Bidder is Deputy Director of the Qatar Centre for Global Banking and Finance at King’s Business School. Rhys spent several years as an economist at the San Francisco Fed, and is currently a research affiliate of the Central Bank of Ireland. He also is an advisor at Chainlink Labs and has taught at several universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick. Rhys’ work has focused on bank intermediation and asset pricing, with recent emphasis on central bank digital currencies. 

The meeting will start at 6.15pm (registration from 6.00pm) and is being held at Bush House (8th Floor), King’s College London, 30 Aldwych, London WC2B 4BG. The talks will be followed by networking drinks until 8.15pm.

We are delighted to be partnering with King’s Business School (KBS) for this event. Part of King’s College London, KBS is a triple accredited (AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA) business school, rated in the top 10 of UK business schools on the basis of research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework. Based in the iconic Bush House – once the HQ of the BBC World Service – KBS is home to over 4000 students and 150 academic staff, and delivers a suite of specialist Masters and executive education programmes both online and on-campus.

Members can register via SPE email communications. Interested in attending but not a member? Visit our member pages to find out how to join Europe’s largest economics professional networks.