ASEAN Finance Ministers Consider Ditching U.S. Dollar, Euro for Financial Transactions

Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have met and discussed ways to ditch the dollar and euro in their financial transactions and move to settlements in local currencies. The meeting took place in Indonesia and revolved around finding ways to reduce dependence on western currencies, such as the U.S. Dollar, Euro, Yen and British Pound through the Local Currency Transaction (LCT) system, an extension of a previous settlement system that has started to be implemented among ASEAN member states and allows local currencies for trade. An agreement on a similar system was…