Since Circle’s founding in 2013, we have supported initiatives that share our vision for a more open, accessible and well-regulated financial system for people across the globe. As part of this effort, Circle recently contributed $50,000 in USDC to support the Emerging Markets Scholarship program at the renowned Program on International Financial Systems (PIFS).
PIFS’ mission is to enhance the role of regulation in building the global financial system. It was founded in 1986 as part of Harvard Law School and became independent in 2018. Today, PIFS collaborates with Harvard Law School Executive Education and organizations such as the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to deliver training programs for regulators. The programming addresses topics such as international development, banking supervision, financial technology, digital assets and sustainable finance.
Circle’s USDC contribution will help fund PIFS’ Emerging Markets Scholarship Program, which arranges training programs for financial regulators in developing economies across Africa, Eurasia and Latin America. In 2023, the program trained over 1,350 financial regulators from 119 agencies in 62 developed and emerging markets. Scholarship beneficiaries can include public officials and government employees at finance ministries or central banks, and capital market regulators in emerging markets, including: Brazil, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Ukraine, and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the GCC.
“Circle’s support, as a leading firm in the development of digital applications to the payments system, is invaluable in helping PIFS to deliver useful advice to emerging market regulators across the globe,” said Hal S. Scott, president and chairman of PIFS and emeritus Nomura Professor of International Financial Systems at Harvard Law School.
“For almost 30 years, PIFS has brought together academics, government and industry to address critical challenges facing the world’s diverse economies,” said Heath Tarbert, Circle’s chief legal officer and head of corporate affairs, and member of PIFS’ board of directors. “PIFS provides one-of-a-kind training programs for market regulators at a time when technological innovations like payment stablecoins like USDC are changing how money moves around the world. Circle is proud to support the Emerging Markets Scholarship Program, and to do so via USDC makes it all the better.”
Before joining Circle, Tarbert was a senior fellow at Harvard Law School/PIFS from 2014-2017. He served in leadership positions in the private sector and all three branches of the U.S. government and across key regulatory agencies. Most recently, Tarbert was the 14th chairman and chief executive of the CFTC and vice chairman of IOSCO.
Learn more about the PIFS Emerging Markets Programs here.
