Central Bank Digital Currency

Central bank digital currency (CBDC, also called "Digital Fiat Currency"[1] or "digital base money"[2]) is the digital form of fiat money which is a currency established as money by government regulation or law.

Central bank digital currency is different from "digital currency" (or virtual currency and cryptocurrency), which are not issued by the state and lack the legal tender status declared by the government. As such, public digital currencies could compete with commercial bank deposits and challenge the status quo of the current fractional reserve banking system.[3][4]

The Bank of England was one of the first[5][6] to initiate a global discussion on the prospects for the introduction of a CBDC. The central bank of Sweden is however the closest to consider its implementation.[7][8] In November 2017, the central bank of Uruguay announced to begin a test to issue digital Uruguayan pesos.[9][10]

In the Eurozone, the Bank of Spain's former governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordoñez has called for the introduction of a digital euro, but the ECB has so far denied such possibility.[11]

One technology to issue CBDC as part of central bank issued base money (or monetary base) has been conceived and created by eCurrency Mint Limited (eCurrency™), a company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.[12]

## Contents

* 1 Characteristics
* 2 Benefits and Impacts
* 3 Risks
* 4 References

## Characteristics

CBDC is a high security digital instrument, like paper bank notes, is a means of payment, a unit of account and a store of value.[13] And like paper currency, each unit is uniquely identifiable to prevent counterfeit.[14]

Digital fiat currency is part of the base money supply[15], together with other forms of the currency. As such, DFC is a liability of the central bank just as physical currency is.[16][17] It's a digital bearer instrument that can be stored, transferred and transmitted by all kinds of digital payment systems and services. The validity of the digital fiat currency is independent of the digital payment systems storing and transferring the digital fiat currency.[18]

Proposals for CBDC implementation usually involve the provision of universal bank accounts at the central banks for all citizens.[19][20]

## Benefits and Impacts

Digital fiat currency is currently being studied and tested by governments and central banks in order to realize the many positive implications it contributes to financial inclusion, economic growth, technology innovation and increased transaction efficiencies.[21][22] Here is a list of potential advantages:

* Safety of payments systems: A secure and standard interoperable digital payment instrument issued and governed by a Central Bank and used as the national digital payment instruments boosts confidence in privately controlled money systems and increases trust in the entire national payment system[23][24] while also boosting competition in payment systems.
* Protection of money as a public utility: digital currencies issued by central banks would provide a modern alternative to physical cash – whose abolition is currently being envisaged.[25]
* Preservation of seignioriage income: public digital currency issuance would avoid a predictable reduction of seignioriage income for governments in the event of a disparition of physical cash.[26]
* Financial inclusion: safe money accounts at the central banks could constitute a strong instrument of financial inclusion, allowing any legal resident or citizen to be provided with a free or low-cost basic bank account;
* Technological efficiency: instead of relying on intermediaries such as banks and clearing houses, money transfers and payments could be made in real time, directly from the payer to the payee.
* Banking competition: the provision of free bank accounts at the central bank offering complete safety of money deposits could strengthen competition between banks to attract bank deposits, for example by offering once again remunerated sight deposits.
* Monetary policy transmission: the issuance of central bank base money through transfers to the public could constitute a new channel for monetary policy transmission[27][28][29] (ie. helicopter money), which would allow more direct control of the money supply than indirect tools such as quantitative easing and interest rates, and possibly lead the way towards a full reserve banking system.[30]
* Financial safety: CBDC would limit the practice of fractional reserve banking and potentially render deposit guarantee schemes less needed.

## Risks

A general concern is that the introduction of a CBDC would precipitate potential bank runs[31][32] and thus make banks' funding position weaker.

## References

1. ↑ "Focus Group on Digital Currency including Digital Fiat Currency" (in en-US). http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/dfc/Pages/default.aspx.
2. ↑ Bank, European Central. "Digital Base Money: an assessment from the ECB’s perspective" (in en). https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2017/html/sp170116.en.html.
3. ↑ "Speech by Jen Weidmann at the Bundesbank Policy Symposium "Frontiers in Central Banking – Past, Present and Future"" (in en). https://www.bundesbank.de/Redaktion/EN/Reden/2017/2017_06_14_weidmann.html.
4. ↑ "Financial innovation and monetary policy: Challenges and prospects". European Parliament. 2017. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/cmsdata/118906/KIEL_FINAL upload.pdf.
5. ↑ "Central banks and digital currencies - speech by Ben Broadbent | Bank of England" (in en-us). http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/2016/886.aspx.
6. ↑ Bjerg, Ole (2017-06-13). Designing New Money - The Policy Trilemma of Central Bank Digital Currency. Rochester, NY. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2985381.
7. ↑ "Sweden's Riksbank eyes digital currency". https://www.ft.com/content/0e37795c-ab33-11e6-9cb3-bb8207902122.
8. ↑ Riksbanken. "The E-krona project – First interim report" (in en). http://www.riksbank.se/en/Financial-stability/Payments/Does-Sweden-need-the-e-krona/Reports/.
9. ↑ Uruguayan central bank to test digital currency \- Agencia EFE, 20 September 2017
10. ↑ El BCU presentó un plan piloto para la emisión de billetes digitales \- Central Bank of Uruguay, 3 November 2017
11. ↑ "ECB rejects implementation of "digital euro" for wrong reasons" (in en-GB). Positive Money Europe. 2018-09-28. http://www.positivemoney.eu/2018/09/ecb-digital-currency-miguel-ordonez/.
12. ↑ "Central Bankers Explore Response to Bitcoin: Their Own Digital Cash". Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/central-bankers-explore-response-to-bitcoin-their-own-digital-cash-1449657001.
13. ↑ "Should the Riksbank issue e-krona?". Sveriges Riksbank. http://www.riksbank.se/Documents/Tal/Skingsley/2016/tal_skingsley_161116_eng.pdf.
14. ↑ "Medium Term Recommendations to Strengthen Digital Payments Ecosystem". Committee on Digital Payments: Ministry of Finance, Government of India. http://mof.gov.in/reports/watal_report271216.pdf.
15. ↑ "Broadening narrow money". 2018. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/working-paper/2018/broadening-narrow-money-monetary-policy-with-a-central-bank-digital-currency.
16. ↑ "Central Bank Digital Currencies". Bank for International Settlements. https://www.bis.org/cpmi/publ/d174.pdf. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
17. ↑ "PBOC Researcher: Can Cryptocurrency & Central Banks Coexist?". Coindesk.com. https://www.coindesk.com/peoples-bank-china-can-cryptocurrency-central-banks-coexist/. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
18. ↑ "Central Bankers Explore Response to Bitcoin: Their Own Digital Cash". Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/central-bankers-explore-response-to-bitcoin-their-own-digital-cash-1449657001.
19. ↑ "Digital Cash: Why central banks should issue digital currency". http://positivemoney.org/publications/digital-cash/.
20. ↑ "Sovereign Digital Currency" (in en-US). https://www.sovereignmoney.eu/sovereign-digital-currency/.
21. ↑ "Canada Has Been Experimenting With A Digital Fiat Currency Called CAD-COIN". Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2016/06/16/canada-has-been-experimenting-with-a-digital-fiat-currency-called-cad-coin/#7f84279046a4.
22. ↑ Bordo, Michael; Levin, Andrew (2017-09-23). "Central bank digital currency and the future of monetary policy". http://voxeu.org/article/benefits-central-bank-digital-currency.
23. ↑ "What should the future form of our money be?". Norges Bank. http://www.norges-bank.no/en/Published/Speeches/2017/2017-04-25-dnva/.
24. ↑ Riksbanken. "Ingves: Do we need an e-krona?" (in en). http://www.riksbank.se/en/Press-and-published/Speeches/2017/Ingves-Do-we-need-an-e-krona/.
25. ↑ "Think Twice About Going Cashless". Bloomberg.com. 2017-05-21. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-05-21/world-should-think-twice-before-abolishing-cash.
26. ↑ "Central Bank Digital Currency: Motivations and Implications" (in en-US). https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2017/11/staff-discussion-paper-2017-16/.
27. ↑ "Central Bank Digital Currency: A Monetary Policy Perspective". http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=en_publication&pg=en_staffinsight&ac=45&bb=file.
28. ↑ "The implications of digital currencies for monetary policy - Think Tank" (in en). http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=IPOL_IDA(2017)602048.
29. ↑ "Helicopter money is “a real possibility,” says Czech central banker" (in en-GB). Positive Money Europe. 2018-03-15. http://www.positivemoney.eu/2018/03/helicopter-money-real-viable-possibility-says-czech-central-banker/.
30. ↑ Stevens, A (June 2017). "Digital currencies: threats and opportunities for monetary policy | nbb.be" (in en). National Bank of Belgium. https://www.nbb.be/en/articles/digital-currencies-threats-and-opportunities-monetary-policy.
31. ↑ Pfister, Christian (September 2017). "Monetary Policy and Digital Currencies: Much Ado about Nothing?". Banque de France. https://publications.banque-france.fr/sites/default/files/medias/documents/dt-642.pdf.
32. ↑ Smets, Jan (2016). "Fintech and Central Banks". National Bank of Belgium. https://www.suerf.org/docx/l_ec5decca5ed3d6b8079e2e7e7bacc9f2_9467_suerf.pdf.

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