DFC

[On July 8th 2021] Banque de France successfully carried out a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) experiment in cooperation with Banque Centrale de Tunisie. A wire transfer took place between two individuals, in commercial bank money through transfer of wholesale CBDC between the two central banks.

Some Chinese cities have begun to pay employees with eCNY but most convert to cash immediately. Ledger Insights points out that this may be because few retail outlets accept it because of the zero acceptance fees paid by merchants, versus the 0.6% paid on other retail digital payment instruments. Apparently, point-of-sale (POS) equipment manufacturers earn a cut of merchant fees, so zero eCNY fees disincentivize conversion of POS equipment.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has established the Project Ensemble Architecture Community to work with the industry to shape standards and provide suggestions to support the development of Hong Kong's tokenization market. The Community aims to develop a set of industry standards to support interoperability among wholesale central bank digital currency (WCBDC), tokenized money and tokenised assets. The Community will also assist in the design and implementation of a sandbox to launch by around mid-2024.

Speaking at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Summit, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said offline accessibility, which is in the works, will make the digital rupee an attractive choice for retail users. Governor Das said that the digital rupee should have the same benefits as cash - anonymity and finality of settlement. While there is currently a preference for the Universal Payments Interface (UPI) among retail users, Governor Das was hopeful that offline and programmable CBDC will change this going forward.

The Bank of Spain published a paper that analyzes the impact of introducing a central bank-issued digital currency (CBDC) on the operational framework of monetary policy and the macroeconomy as a whole. It is based on a theoretical model that is calibrated to replicate the main monetary and financial aggregates in the euro area. It predicts that CBDC adoption implies a roughly equivalent reduction in banks' deposit funding, but this has a rather small effect on bank lending to the real economy. This result reflects the parallel impact of a CBDC on a central bank's operational framework. For relatively moderate CBDC adoption levels, the reduction in deposits is absorbed by an almost one-to-one fall in reserves at the central bank, implying a transition from a 'floor' system – with ample reserves – to a 'corridor' system. For larger CBDC adoption, the loss of bank deposits is compensated by increased recourse to central bank credit, as the corridor system gives way to a 'ceiling' system with scarce reserves.

The National Bank of Rwanda (NBR) launched a public consultation on the potential issuance of central bank digital currency (CBDC). A detailed feasibility study, launched in 2023, formed the basis of its approach, that identified four "sweet spots" for a Rwandan CBDC: (i) increase resilience against possible network outages, power failures and natural disasters, (ii) improve innovation and competition, (iii) contribute to achieving the cashless economy national initiative over time, and (iv)develop faster, cheaper, more transparent, and more inclusive crossborder remittances. The consultative paper recommends a cautious iterative approach with multiple proofs of concepts and pilots.

IndusInd Bank successfully implemented the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) programmable central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot. It was executed as an alternate form of CBDC wherein the bank can program the end use of funds being disbursed to farmers in lieu of generation of carbon credits. IndusInd Bank initiated the programmable CBDC disbursement to 50 farmers in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, which will expand to 1000 farmers. Phase 2 of the project will focus on Safai Karmacharis, aiming to increase their income by leveraging revenues generated from the collection, recycling, and repurposing of plastic waste.

In February 2023, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub published its 2023 workplan that included Project Pyxtrial, aimed at building a stablecoins monitoring platform to ensure that the backing assets at least match the stablecoin issuance. That was the last I heard of it, but I just came across a request for quotation (RFQ) that was published in August 2023 for “visionary partners with outstanding experience and technological capabilities to join [the London Centre] to design and build prototypes of the data reporting pipeline. The RFQ was supposed to have closed in September 2023 and the work started in October.

The IMF published a paper on central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments in the Middle East and Central Asia (ME&CA) region. A survey of IMF country teams representing 31 ME&CA countries found that 19 are considering issuing or exploring CBDC, most of which are at the research stage, although a few are at the proof-of-concept (POC) stage (Bahrain, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates). Kazakhstan is most advanced in its CBDC journey, having initiated two digital tenge pilots. The region's fragile and conflict-affected states and low-income countries (LICs) have expressed limited interest. The paper also includes three country case studies (Jordan, Kazakhstan, and Libya).

The European Central Bank (ECB) is opposed to Apple’s proposed changes to the iPhone’s near-field communication (NFC) at the core of Apple Pay. The ECB argues that by not providing third parties with full access to the secure element (SE) of its NFC technology, Apple Pay maintains an unfair advantage against third-party payment apps on iPhones. Because of these limitations, contactless payments made through third-party apps on iPhone would be less user-friendly and ultimately be slower than Apple’s offering. Also, iPhones would be incompatible with the digital euro, because the current enabling legislation requires the ability to do peer-to-peer (P2P) and offline payments, the latter which requires access to the SE.

The Brookings Institute published a paper by Timothy Massad, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) , on how blockchain-based stablecoins could undermine the global financial system plumbing that has been exploited by U.S. authorities to protect national security interests (e.g., by implementing sanctions). He discusses various regulatory and legislative options, and finds them either insufficient or disrespecting reasonable privacy expectations. Mr. Massad suggests that, at minimum, stablecoin issuers should be required to engage in enhanced monitoring of blockchains for suspicious transactions and consider when the issuer must “freeze” stablecoins.

The Banque Centrale de Mauritanie is partnering with Giesecke+Devriant (G+D) to design and introduce a potential CBDC complementing the Ouguiya national currency. The aim of the joint project is to gain a clear understanding of how a digital Mauritanian Ouguiya could benefit society and the country's economy. G+D will support the central bank in defining the requirements for a national CBDC and deliver the technical solution for initial testing of defined uses cases.

The European Central Bank (ECB) published a paper that discusses the potential impact of retail CBDC introduction on monetary policy implementation if it leads to a decrease in commercial bank deposits. Should this happen, bank holdings of central bank reserve holdings might shrink. However, the paper argues that uncertainty as to the timing and extent of any conversions of deposits into CBDC might prompt banks to scale up their demand for central bank reserves in order to hold larger precautionary buffers. Consequently, central banks might need to adjust their reserve supply and other features of their monetary policy implementation. In any case, the paper suggests CBDC design features could mitigate the risk of negative consequences for monetary policy implementation.

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) published its Digital Payments Roadmap, aimed at realizing the overarching goals and strategies of the National Payment System Framework and Strategy: Vision 2025, including the promotion of competition and innovation, cost-effectiveness, interoperability and financial inclusion. In the Roadmap, the SARB commits to further exploring the issuance of retail and wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) over a two-year timeline. The work will follow up on the work that started in May 2021 to investigate the feasibility, desirability and appropriateness of issuing retail CBDC, and on the SARB's wholesale CBDC proof of concept work that goes back to Project Khokha 1, completed in 2018. The SARB is embarking on Project Khokha 2x, which will focus on wholesale CBDCs that could be used for settlements and collateral.

"We propose a new theory of stablecoins based on common knowledge. We contrast this with the ‘better money’ theory of stablecoins, which emphasises marginal improvements over the standard origin of money theory as: medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value."

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) published an English version of its update on its retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) technical testing. The original version was published in late March 2024 in Thai and, because Google Translate was returning gibberish, I wasn’t able to ascertain whether the latest work was a pilot or proof of concept (POC). However, according to the new document, it is clearly a proof of concept because the 4,000 individual users that participated were employees of the BOT and the three intermediaries that took part. In any case, the POC successfully demonstrated the potential of the technology behind the retail CBDC system, but the BOT said it has no plans to launch one and will use the technology design to further develop a more efficient payment system.

The U.S. Federal Reserve published a paper that examines the financial stability risks in times of stress associated with central bank digital currency (CBDC) under different design options. The analysis is based on lessons derived from historical case studies of bank runs as well as on an analytical framework that allows for the characterization of the mechanisms through which a CBDC can affect financial stability. It then discusses an extensive array of policy tools that can be employed to mitigate these risks.

Andrew Abir, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Israel (BOI), floated the idea of a remunerated digital shekel, as a way to push banks to up their games. "We could consider that the digital shekel, which will be built to be able to pay interest directly on the public's holdings, would actually do that. Of course, we will need to think about this carefully – for example, by setting it at a lower level than the Bank of Israel policy interest rate, and/or by limiting the types of users who will be eligible for it and the maximum amount on which interest would be paid."

UK Finance announced work on a new UK Regulated Liability Network (RLN) experimentation phase with eleven of its members. The UK RLN is envisaged as a common "platform for innovation" across multiple forms of money, including existing commercial bank deposits and a shared ledger for tokenized commercial bank deposits. It will focus on three use cases; payment-upon-delivery for a physical product, the process of buying a home, and digital bond settlement. The experimentation phase will run until summer 2024 and will cover customer and business benefits, technical feasibility via proofs of concept in a technology sandbox, and the legal framework.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published its vision for a "Finternet" of multiple financial ecosystems interconnected with each other, much like the internet. The envisioned system leverages tokenization and unified ledgers, underpinned by a robust economic and regulatory framework, to dramatically expand the range and quality of financial services. The paper provides a blueprint for how key technical characteristics like interoperability, verifiability, programmability, immutability, finality, evolvability, modularity, scalability, security and privacy can be incorporated, and how varied governance norms can be embedded.

The European Central Bank (ECB) published a slew of PowerPoint presentations from its two parallel central bank digital currency (CBDC) workstreams (wholesale and retail).

"Most studies on central bank digital currencies focus on the effects after they become well established. This column analyses the macroeconomic effects in the transition to the new equilibrium. Using a two-country model with financial frictions, it shows that, under plausible assumptions for demand for central bank digital currency, the transition is characterised by volatility in the digital currency, cash, and deposits, leading to volatility in loan rates, investment, and consumption. Binding caps on holdings of the digital currency during the transition period are shown to be most effective in reducing disintermediation and output losses and in minimising international spillovers."