PERU

On November 16, the president of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru, Julio Velarde, announced that the entity is working on the launching of a digital currency to adapt to the financial systems and payment models of the future. The official indicated that the project is being analyzed with the central banks of countries such as India, Singapore, Hong Kong for the payment system of the “next 8 or 10 years” as he explained. In turn, the president of the Institute for the Defense of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi in Spanish), Julián Palacín Gutiérrez, spoke out against the bill that elevates the entity to an autonomous constitutional body. The bill is expected to continue its debate in the Constitution and Regulations Committee in the short term.

During his participation in the Annual Conference of Executives (CADE in Spanish), Velarde pointed out that the institution he presides is working together with several central banks for the creation of a digital currency that “will be imposed in the future, with a financial system that will be different from the current one”. It should be noted that, unlike a cryptocurrency, digital currencies are only issued by central banks and have their backing, thus guaranteeing greater stability and less volatility in their price.

On the other hand, the president of Indecopi spoke out against the constitutional reform bill that aims to elevate the Institute for the Defense of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) as an autonomous constitutional body. This measure would allow the entity to avoid the interference of the governments in power in the decision making regarding its competences in market control and protection of intellectual property, and also proposes as functions of Indecopi the protection of the free private initiative and freedom of enterprise and the performance of controls of business concentration operations.

In this way, Julian Palacin mentioned that Article 118 of the Peruvian Constitution establishes that the President of the Republic must legally enforce measures in favor of free competition, consumer protection and intellectual property. Likewise, the official referred that the bill does not respect the Magna Carta, since it seeks to disregard the five years of appointment of Supreme Resolution Nº100-2021-PCM that appointed him as president of Indecopi for the period 2021-2026.