CBDC Round Up

CBDC ‘Hesitancy’

There have been a number of articles recently expressing reservations about issuing a retail CBDC.

At a BIS event, the Central Bank of Chile announced that it is delaying its planned digital roll out to undertake further work on the benefits and risks. The central bank said the current payment system is working and adapted well to recent challenges. On the other hand, a CBDC could enhance and mitigate against the risks of digital transformation.

At the same event, Ravi Menon from the Monetary Authority of Singapore said that central banks should be focusing on wholesale CBDCs for cross-border payments in order to avoid the ‘laborious’ and ‘archaic’ SWIFT system. The Reserve Bank of Australia believes that there is ‘currently no strong public policy case to introduce a CBDC for retail use’ but is continuing its work.