Design guidelines for the monetary and financial system in the digital age

This thesis applies design science to the monetary and financial system as a whole. The application of this novel methodology offers new possibilities to examine this complex system. The contribution of this thesis is threefold. First, different theories on money, banking and systemic financial crises have been researched through an extensive literature review and balance sheets. Second, those theories have been used to develop design requirements and guidelines. Finally, the consensus and pivotal dissensions about the systemic problem(s) of the current monetary and financial system, requirements and guidelines among experts have been identified through semi-structured interviews. This research process results in widely supported requirements that demarcate the design space and widely supported guidelines that aim to give direction within the design space, that is, to the future development of the monetary and financial system.

The main artifact of this research are these three guidelines:
GDG 1: Develop and gradually introduce public digital money.
GDG 2: Move the financial system towards funding based on securities offering market liquidity.
GDG 3: Move financial regulation towards transparency.