Capital markets, payments companies spar over stablecoins

MUMBAI: The capital market and the payments industry have sparred on the future of stablecoins – an instrument over which government and Reserve Bank of India have articulated a cautious yet evolving policy.At the CII Financing Summit here, where senior financial sector leaders spoke in the presence of senior finance ministry and Sebi officials ahead of Budget preparations, the payments sector argued that fiat-backed stablecoins could modernise cross-border transfers, while the capital market side warned that decentralised models risked weakening regulatory oversight, taxation and market integrity.Visa’s group country manager Sandeep Ghosh said the company is “very bullish about stablecoins” if backed by strong guardrails. He said stablecoins could bring scale, speed and lower costs to remittances and cross-border payments, noting that India should not fall behind global standards. By contrast, NSE CEO Ashish Chauhan called stablecoins a ‘Trojan horse’, warning that decentralised systems could undermine the PMLA framework, dilute taxation and expose markets to manipulation if blockchain records were compromised. He urged policymakers to prepare for risks arising from the shift away from centralised finance.