Chairman and Co-founder of Infosys and Founding Chairman of UIDAI (Aadhaar), Nandan Nilekani, has reiterated that the time is ripe to adopt the concept of the “Finternet.” The concept, introduced by Nilekani, and General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements, Agustín Carstens, in 2024, envisions a future financial system where diverse financial ecosystems interconnect much like the internet.

The two thought leaders shared their insights during a panel discussion titled “Tokenization and the Financial System: Adapting to the New Landscape,” on April 23, 2025, held at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington D.C. The panel also featured Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Michele Bullock, and Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, Piero Cipollone. The session was moderated by Director of the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department, Tobias Adrian.

“I think we believe that the time has come to really implement the Finternet approach, and if we can work with making it user centric, universal and unified, we really want to create a financial network that works for everyone, everywhere,” said Nilekani. 

He emphasized that the technology underpinning the Finternet will be made available as open source, allowing any country or company to utilize it. “It is really about applying it in a regulatory framework for the kind of assets that we want… And we are very confident that if the world embraces this approach, we can get them much faster,” he added.

Nilekani highlighted the critical role of the public sector in establishing the regulatory frameworks necessary for tokenization. Once these rules are clearly defined, he said, private sector innovators will be able to develop solutions within that structure.

Reflecting on the progress already made toward realizing the Finternet, Nilekani said the initiative holds immense promise for advancing social inclusion and economic development. He called on global stakeholders to accelerate efforts in this direction.

He clarified that tokenization is not simply about digitizing traditional financial processes.

“It’s designing a new foundation where money and assets are programmable, portable and interoperable from day one. That’s a huge transformation, if we can pull it off. And this is where the idea of Finternet came in. The thing is that they have been lot of efforts around the world on tokenization,” he said noting that many central banks are exploring tokenized currencies, stablecoins, and the tokenization of bonds and deposits.

The concept of the Finternet emerged during a meeting between Nilekani and Carstens in Bangalore during the G20 summit in February 2023. At the time, Carstens was writing about a new financial architecture, while Nilekani and his team had been building population-scale systems capable of handling billions of transactions.

“So, we got together and said, can we apply that population scale generic approach to tokenization, and that’s how the idea of Finternet was born,” he added. 

Their joint paper on the Finternet was published a year later in 2024. Looking ahead, Nilekani outlined a roadmap for global asset tokenization based on three key principles: the system must be user-centric, built on a unified architecture for all asset types, and operate on a universal infrastructure accessible worldwide.

“We come from a background of actually getting things done. So that’s where we have been working. In the last one year, we have created a lot of the basic tools for how this Finternet would look like, how you do credentialing, and how you create wallets,” he added. “We have a universal information tokenized system, and we are actually demonstrating that you can do transactions and billions of transaction level using public chain technology.”

He said that pilot projects are already underway in collaboration with central banks and private companies, with tangible results expected by December 2025.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, in her opening remarks, underscored the critical role of financial market infrastructure in supporting the international monetary system. She said it facilitates efficient and secure transfers of value, supporting intermediation and trade. 

“What we have seen over the last years are incredible advancements in digital technology. They are allowing us to rethink and improve this infrastructure,” she said adding “We are witnessing the emergence of so-called financial platforms based on tokenization and smart contracts to transfer securities and money, we will hear of several concrete examples in today’s panel, including the work of central banks.”

Georgieva noted that nearly two-thirds of central banks expect to make their reserves available on digital platforms within the next five years – an evolution she described as transformative. Such platforms, she said, could boost payment efficiency, foster financial inclusion, and spur economic growth.

She also outlined three essential principles for maintaining a stable international monetary system in the digital age: platforms must support financial stability and monetary sovereignty, ensure inclusivity for all countries, and rest on a sound legal foundation.

As the global financial community navigates this evolving landscape, she stressed, macro-financial stability, integration, and collaboration must remain guiding priorities.

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