brasilia dec 13 reuters  brazils central bank aims to launch its digital currency in 2024 after a closed pilot program next year with financial institutions bank president roberto campos neto said on tuesday adding that the project had received international attention speaking at an event hosted by the news website poder 360 campos neto said the design of the central banks digital currency would encourage banks to tokenize their assets with considerable efficiency gains if the digital currency is actually a tokenized deposit it inherits all the regulation that already applies to deposits he said adding that it should not disturb monetary policy or hurt banks balance sheets campos neto said representatives of the international monetary fund imf have approached the central bank and given feedback that this model seems the easiest to implement and other central banks should look into it in the end we were even flattered to have thought of a system that other central banks are now thinking of he said the tokenization of deposits should also improve the banks settlement auditing and funding costs said campos neto the central bank chief also predicted a jump in use of the banks popular instant payment system pix once users can access cheaper credit through the system without a fee known as the merchant discount rate mdr merchants pay the mdr fee to the companies that supply card machines such as cielo  stone stneo and getnet gett3sa launched in november 2020 pix is ​​free for individuals but the system lets banks and payment institutions freely define merchants costs both for transfers and receiving funds the pix system has grown immensely popular in brazil with use now surpassing transactions with credit and debit cards in the country reporting by marcela ayres editing by andrew heavens and david evans