Former vice president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christian Noyer, has affirmed that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are unlikely to be rolled out for another decade.
Jumping off the recent uptick in digital asset interest from central banks, as well as Facebook’s rocky foray into the industry, Noyer opined that CBDCs are a future potentiality. However, speaking to the Financial Times, the former banker caveated that “hesitations” around CBDCs—arising from privacy concerns and control of fiscal policy—may hinder their launch.
Whether they will enact the projects in the next ten years remains to be seen. I don’t think we are close to the departure lounge, but the fact that they want to study it means a lot of work will continue this year.
CBDC Madness
Bank-backed crypto projects seem to be more prevalent than ever. China’s implementation of a sovereign cryptocurrency is apparently on track for imminent release—despite multiple flunked deadlines. In fact, it’s thought that China’s attempt at a CBDC has spurred multiple knee-jerk reactions from other national institutions.
This appears to be the case for one of the latest—and perhaps most intriguing—CDBC investigations.
Back in January, a central bank collective, comprising of six of the world’s top institutions, announced plans to study the benefits of a CBDC. The collective which incorporates the European Central Bank; the Bank of England; the Bank of Canada; the Bank of Japan; the Sveriges Riksbank; and the Swiss National Bank, and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) aims to assess several criteria, including:
CBDC use cases; economic, functional and technical design choices, including cross-border interoperability; and the sharing of knowledge on emerging technologies.
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