It could be a while before European Union gets a central bank digital currency, if it gets one at all. In a Wednesday interview with Bloomberg Television, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde laid out the complex decision-making process with which the bank will determine the future of a digital euro. The ECB will soon release its analysis of eight thousand responses received from its digital euro consultation process. “That will be communicated to the European Parliament which is one of the key players as well as the Commission and the Council with which we operate,” she stated. Based on …
Financial authorities in New Zealand are in no hurry to issue a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, according to a central bank executive. Christian Hawkesby, assistant governor at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, claimed that the country has “no imminent plans” to issue a CBDC. In a speech on Monday, Hawkesby said that the bank remains open-minded about further progress in money and payment technologies and has actively engaged in CBDC research. He said: “To issue currency that meets the needs of the public, we must take a new and holistic approach. We acknowledge there is much work …
Central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, could pose a threat to financial systems if related risks are not managed, Big Three credit agency Fitch Ratings has warned. Fitch Ratings released a report on Monday entitled “Central Bank Digital Currencies: Opportunities, Risk and Disruption,” which discussed the major trade-offs between risks and benefits associated with CBDCs. Fitch Ratings stated that the key benefits of a retail CBDC lie in its potential ability to expand government-backed cashless payments in an effort to keep up with the wider digitalization of society. The biggest reasons to explore a CBDC for central banks and some …
Financial authorities in Europe could form an investigation plan for a digital euro as early as next year, according to an executive at the European Central Bank. Holger Neuhaus, head of market innovation and integration at the ECB, joined the Singapore FinTech Festival 2020 on Monday to discuss the global development of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. During the online discussion, Neuhaus claimed that the ECB expects European financial authorities to assess whether to launch a digital euro initiative by mid-2021: “In mid-2021, the euro system will consider whether to launch a digital euro project. But just to highlight, …
Blockchain, the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), is not the right solution for a central bank digital currency, according to an economist at Switzerland’s central bank. Carlos Lenz, chief economist at the Swiss National Bank, argued that blockchain-based decentralization features are not efficient for a state-controlled digital currencies like a digital franc, German-language Swiss newspaper The Handelszeitung reported Thursday. The economist reportedly noted that there is a large number of technological opportunities for building a digital franc. “One could imagine a direct account with the National Bank. Not that we want to do that, but that would be …