Changes in the international monetary system have typically been “profound but slow”, research published by the International Monetary Fund says. However, technological shifts could speed up the rate of change in future.

Hector Perez-Saiz, Longmei Zhang and Roshan Iyer use data from Swift to explore the factors driving currency choice for cross-border payments. In a working paper, they highlight the “significant degree of inertia” due to network effects and switching costs, which tends to leave