DFC

Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) reportedly aims to launch its central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2024. It will be designed to encourage banks to tokenize their assets, so it sounds like it's being designed for niche cases, rather than general purpose usage.The huge popularity of the BCB's PIX payment system might argue for such an approach. Its use now surpasses transactions with credit and debit cards in the country.

"India’s government has turned to the country’s media platforms to explain what the CBDCs are, and what they may be used for."

The Bank of England is proposing a limit of between £10,000 and £20,000 per individual as the appropriate balance between managing risks and supporting wide usability of the digital pound. The Technology Working Paper accompanying the Consultation Paper sets out an illustrative and complementary conceptual model consisting of a core ledger, API layer, analytics and alias service. The core ledger operated by the Bank might be centralised, running as a traditional database, or it might use Distributed Ledger Technology (whether a blockchain or another form of the technology). The Bank would provide the digital pound and the central infrastructure, including the ‘core ledger’. Private sector firms – which could be banks or approved non-bank firms – would provide the interface between the Bank’s central infrastructure and users by offering wallets and payment services. These private companies would be able to integrate the digital pound, as the settlement asset, into the services they would offer to wallet holders. The wallets would be operated on a ‘pass-through’ basis. That is to say, they would not constitute a claim on the wallet provider in the way that a bank account is a claim on a bank. Nor would they represent a custody arrangement. Rather, the wallets would hold all of the customer related information and ‘pass-through’ the customers instructions to the Bank’s infrastructure. All of the digital pounds would be held on the Bank of England’s central ledger.

The Bank of England (BoE) and HM Treasury launched a digital pound central bank digital currency (CBDC) consultation. Both want to ensure the public have access to safe money that is convenient to use as everyday lives become more digital, while supporting private sector innovation, choice and efficiency in digital payments. At this stage, they judge it likely that the digital pound will be needed, but a decision to go ahead  won't be taken until around the middle of the decade, and it wouldn't be launched until the second half of the decade. Alongside the consultation paper, the BoE published a technology working paper on its CBDC technology thinking.

A European Central Bank (ECB) blog post by Ulrich Bindseil and Doris Schneeberger discusses findings from a recent ECB consumer survey and what they mean for the future of cash and digital means of payment. "Despite the preference for cashless payments, 60% of euro area consumers state that they value having the option to pay in cash. This shows that people appreciate having a choice when it comes to how they pay. Their decision may then depend on the particular situation or purchase." The post made it clear that "as cash remains widely used and valued, [the ECB is] committed to maintaining euro cash and will continue to make sure it is available.

"Chinese cities launched digital yuan activities worth over 180 million yuan ($26.6 million) to promote consumption during the Spring Festival holidays, including subsidies, consumption coupons and other programs, according to media reports on Sunday."

"Over the course of the Lunar New Year holiday, the Chinese central bank distributed an amount of its digital currency (CBDC) worth millions of dollars around the nation in an effort to encourage more people to use it."

Finland-based Membrane Finance has released a fully-reserved stablecoin backed by the euro. The company is licensed by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (Fin-FSA) and claims that the new ”EUROe” coin is “the first and only ... crypto stablecoin.regulated by an EU-based financial authority.

A Research in International Business and Finance paper has found that current accounting standards do not precisely cover the treatment of digital currencies. It identifies a need for an accounting standard to provide guidance on the identification, classification, measurement, and presentation of digital currencies, but in the interim, existing standards can be amended to incorporate them to avoid inconsistent global accounting approaches.

"The [Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's (RBZ's)] CBDC Project continued to progress steadily in line with the envisaged CBDC Road Map. In this regard, in November 2022, the Bank rolled out a consumer survey that intends to solicit opinions on the design and nature of the CBDC and its overall acceptance/acceptability by stakeholders. As at January 23, 2023, the survey had received 2,286 responses."

On 17 December 2020, the Banque de France successfully carried out an experiment on central bank digital currency (CBDC) with IZNES as part of the experimental programme launched in March.

(June 25, 2021) "The Banque de France conducted a successful experiment on the use of central bank digital currency to settle the issuance of a French Government Bond (OAT, Obligation Assimilable du Trésor) by Agence France Trésor with a consortium of actors driven by Euroclear."

R3 published a report on the application of automated market makers (AMMs) to cross-border and cross-currency central bank digital currency (CBDC). AMM structures, which are are common in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, increase price transparency, work for low liquidity instruments, and bring the process of trading and settlement closer together. Such outcomes could benefit segments of today’s FX market. However, adapting AMM to  spot FX markets will need to answer questions including: who would run it, what formula might be appropriate for larger transactions, and how to incentivize participants.

"Although the terminology used to define stablecoins is currently ambiguous, they can be broadly defined as a specific type of crypto-asset that aims to maintain a stable value relative to a specified currency, asset, or pool of currencies/assets. This paper characterises different types of stablecoins according to the stabilisation mechanism used and analyses the current stablecoins’ market. It also describes the regulatory framework applicable to stablecoins in a few selected jurisdictions. The main focus of the paper is the identification of the main risks associated with stablecoins, particularly the so-called global stablecoins, i.e., those stablecoins with a potential to be adopted across different jurisdictions and achieve a substantial volume. Finally, the paper concludes that continuous monitoring of the stablecoins’ market should be pursued, given their increasing relevance and potential impact on the financial sector."

"The Riksbank is investigating whether it is possible to issue a digital complement to cash, a so-called e-krona. Just like cash, the e-krona would be issued by the Riksbank and be available to everybody. As yet no decision has been taken to issue an e-krona. "

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued the consultation conclusion to the discussion paper on crypto-assets and stablecoins. Respondents were supportive of regulating stablecoins with a risk-based and agile approach. The respondents also broadly supported the need to take into account the latest market developments and draw reference from the discussion of international regulatory bodies when developing the relevant regulatory regime. he HKMA will announce the regulatory arrangements and next steps in due course.

The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) published a brief that documents the acceleration of consumers' and businesses' migration away from cash and checks towards electronic payments, and a growing use of contactless and fast payments. The Covid-19 pandemic was likely responsible for the surge but at the same time, public demand for cash remains steady,  both as a means of payment and as a safe haven.

"In this paper, we discuss the current use cases and growth opportunities of stablecoins, and we analyze the potential for stablecoins to broadly impact the banking system. The impact of stablecoin adoption on traditional banking and credit provision can vary depending on the sources of inflow and the composition of stablecoin reserves. Among the various scenarios, a two-tiered banking system can both support stablecoin issuance and maintain traditional forms of credit creation. In contrast, a narrow bank approach for digital currencies can lead to disintermediation of traditional banking, but may provide the most stable peg to fiat currencies. Additionally, dollar-pegged stablecoins backed by adequately safe and liquid collateral can potentially serve as a digital safe haven currency during periods of crypto market distress. "

The Central Bank of Iran will reportedly make its CryptoRial central bank digital currency (CBDC) available to the public on February 7, 2023, following its pilot phase, of which little is known. Bank Melli, Bank Mellat and Bank Tejarat were involved in the experimental stages of the project, and Bank Melli and Bank Mellat conducted the pilot. If anyone out there knows more about the pilot, or upcoming launch, please let me know!

Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic, announced that, in collaboration with Ripple and the central bank, the government is starting work on a digital currency or stablecoin for Montenegro. Montenegro uses the EUR, despite not being a member of the Eurozone, although it is a candidate country for European Union (EU) membership.

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) published a stocktaking paper that I co-authored on the degrees of central bank digital currency (CBDC) technical assistance (TA) support for lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). It highlights the different options for CBDC support for LMIC authorities in their general-purpose/retail and wholesale CBDC exploration journeys. It also shows how demand outstrips supply in fit-for- purpose assistance and the important role of development partners in closing this gap in order to ensure that CBDCs can meet the expectations in relation to achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Also the paper highlights the remaining gaps in optimally equipping authorities in LMICs in their CBDC pursuit.

My SODA colleague Chris Ostrowski and Chris Hayes, in another CoinDesk article, make three predictions on the landscape for CBDCs and stablecoins in Europe and in the U.S. based on the trends they’ve seen through engagement with central bankers and policymakers.

I moderated a couple of sessions on offline central bank digital currency (CBDC) at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) DC³ From Cryptocurrencies to CBDCs​​ Conference on January 27, 2023. The first session was on the importance of offline payments for CBDCs and financial inclusion at which cases were presented by Lars Hupel (G+D), Razvan Dragomirescu (WhisperCash), Joachim Samuelsson (Crunchfish) and Jerome Ajdenbaum (IDEMIA). The second session was a deep dive into offline CBDC implementation and risk management presented by Lauren Del Giudice (IDEMIA) and Stuart Smith (VISA). [Both sessions were recorded and are available at the ITU]

The Federal Reserve Board issued a policy statement to promote a level playing field for all banks with a federal supervisor, regardless of deposit insurance status. The statement makes clear that uninsured and insured banks supervised by the Board will be subject to the same limitations on activities, including novel banking activities, such as crypto-asset-related activities. The statement also makes clear that uninsured and insured banks supervised by the Board would be subject to the limitations on certain activities imposed on national banks, which are overseen by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The equal treatment will promote a level playing field and limit regulatory arbitrage... The Board generally believes that issuing dollar- denominated tokens (dollar tokens) using distributed ledger technology or similar technologies on open, public, and/or decentralized networks, or similar systems is highly likely to be inconsistent with safe and sound banking practices. The Board believes such tokens raise concerns related to operational, cybersecurity, and run risks, and may also present significant illicit finance risks, because—depending on their design—such tokens could circulate continuously, quickly, pseudonymously, and indefinitely among parties unknown to the issuing bank. Importantly, the Board believes such risks are pronounced where the issuing bank does not have the capability to obtain and verify the identity of all transacting parties, including for those using unhosted wallets.

Are There Tech Solutions to the Privacy and Compliance Trade-Offs for CBDCs? Users will likely demand cash-like privacy protections for central bank digital currencies, which may be thwarted by regulations. However, new technology solutions may enable high degrees of privacy while complying with regulations.