The European Central Bank (ECB) needs a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) because market players expect it, ECB executive board member Fabio Panetta told a banking symposium in Germany on Monday. Two options for wholesale CBDCs are currently under consideration. Wholesale CBDC is not a new concept, Panetta said. Eurosystem’s Target2 uses a centralized CBDC, strictly speaking. Target2 is a real-time gross settlement system in use since 2017 that also provides a securities settlement platform and an instant payment settlement service. Despite this, banks and financial market institutions continue to explore distributed ledger technology (DLT), Panetta said. The digitalisation …

Making it to the list of countries that intend to launch an in-house central bank digital currency (CBDC), the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) released a white paper outlining an elaborate plan for conducting a pilot project for eAUD. On Aug. 9, 2022, the RBA announced a collaboration with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) to explore CBDC use cases for Australia. The joint research resulted in the launch of a project to test a general-purpose pilot CBDC. As outlined in the ‘Australian CBDC Pilot for Digital Finance Innovation’ white paper: “The key objectives of the project are to …

The Central Bank of Iran will make a pilot launch of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) on Sept. 22, the Iranian Chamber of Commerce has announced. The so-called “crypto-rial” has been in the planning stage for several years. The launch of the crypto rial was originally planned for November, according to the Chamber, which said the CBDC was intended “to help improve financial inclusion and function as a powerful tool for the CBI to compete with other stable coins globally.” It added that experts within the country had concerns about businesses’ preparedness to use a CBDC, the public’s understanding …

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) published a paper outlining the state of research on its proposed retail central bank digital currency (rCBDC) and plans for its further development. This is the third paper the HKMA has published on the e-HKD, as the proposed CBDC is called. The proposed rCBDC would have a two-tier structure consisting of a wholesale interbank system and the retail user wallet system. No wholesale Hong Kong CBDC has been introduced yet, but research on it began in 2017, four years before rCBDC planning started. The rCBDC would be disintermediated. The paper notes: “While it appears …

The People’s Bank of China, or PBoC, will reportedly expand deployment of its central bank digital currency, the e-CNY, to four of the country’s provinces, including Guangdong. According to a Tuesday report from the South China Morning Post, PBoC deputy governor Fan Yifei said at an event in Suzhou that the bank would be rolling out e-CNY trials to the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Hebei and Sichuan. With a combined population of more than 360 million people, the reported move would be a marked expansion of the central bank’s CBDC plans, which has been largely limited to individual cities, merchants, …

By the end of last week, the federal agencies presented the results of their six-month-long work on the principal directions for digital assets regulation in the United States. The resulting first-ever crypto framework, published on the White House website, may not contain many surprises or exact details, but, as a part of President Joe Biden’s executive order, it will undoubtedly affect the policymaking decisions to come. Perhaps the most important section of the framework is dedicated to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). It revealed that the administration has already developed policy objectives for a U.S. CBDC system, but further research …

As directed by the President of the United States, Joe Biden, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) submitted a report analyzing the design choices for 18 central bank digital currency (CBDC) systems for possible implementation in the US. The technical analysis of the 18 CBDC design choices was made across six broad categories — participants, governance, security, transactions, data and adjustments. The OSTP foresees technical complexities and practical limitations when trying to build a permissionless system governed by a central bank, adding: “It is possible that the technology underpinning a permissionless approach will improve significantly over time, which …

United States President Joe Biden ordered more than a dozen reports to be written when he released his Executive Order (EO) 14067 “Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.” Five of them had due dates in 90 days, and the last three of them were published at once by the Treasury Department on Sept. 16. The reports were prepared in response to instructions in Sections 4, 5 and 7 of the EO. The report ordered in EO Section 4 is titled “The Future of Money and Payments.” The report looks at the several payment systems currently in use that are operated …

Sheila Warren, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, said the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act currently being considered by U.S. lawmakers was a “pivotal step” towards achieving regulatory clarity, but recommended changes to determine the role authorities will take on digital assets. In written testimony for a Wednesday hearing on the bill with the Senate Agriculture Committee, Warren said the proposed legislation needed to better define a “digital commodity” and security rather than leaving the matter to regulatory agencies or U.S. courts. According to the Crypto Council CEO, the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act also fell short of clarifying …

Ripple may soon unveil positive developments in its central bank digital currency (CBDC) projects, following hints from Ripple CBDC advisor Antony Welfare of more announcements to come. Crypto influencer Sentosumosaba had shared on Twitter on Sept.6 that Ripple was in the midst of several CBDC pilot programs including one in Bhutan and the other in Palau. Ripple’s senior advisor Welfare, who handles CBDC Europe and Global Partnerships responded on the same thread, teasing there could be “more CBDC announcements” in the “next few weeks.” Thanks @sentosumosaba for the mention - make sure you follow me for more CBDC announcements in …

Today’s financial world is becoming increasingly digitized, and naturally, central banks want to adapt to the changing environment. The use of cash is rapidly declining. Globally, the rise of digital payment apps and COVID-19 have only accelerated the decline in cash usage, fueling interest in digital currencies and demand for easier payment solutions. As crypto adoption continues to expand, the idea of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) has also gained momentum. Governments across the world have been flirting with, and examining, the idea of issuing their own CBDCs, with a handful already launching. It isn’t clear when CBDCs will become …

Half a year after the military junta in Myanmar revealed its plans to launch a digital currency, the country’s government, ousted in a coup in 2021, voices its own intention to launch one using frozen national funds. In a Sept. 6 interview with Bloomberg, the minister of planning of exiled Myanmar’s National Unity Government, Tin Tun Naing, asked for the “U.S. blessing” to use “virtually” the country’s reserves, frozen by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since Feb. 2021. The funds Naing mentions have been frozen on Singaporean, Thai and Japanese accounts and could amount to billions of dollars …