Most cen­tral banks are explo­ring cen­tral bank digi­tal cur­ren­ci­es (CBDCs), and their work con­ti­nues apace amid the Covid-19 pan­de­mic. As a who­le, cen­tral banks are moving into more advan­ced sta­ges of CBDC enga­ge­ment, pro­gres­sing from con­cep­tu­al rese­arch to prac­ti­cal expe­ri­men­ta­ti­on. Around the glo­be, inte­rest in CBDCs con­ti­nues to be shaped by local cir­cum­s­tan­ces. In emer­ging mar­ket and deve­lo­ping eco­no­mies, whe­re cen­tral banks report rela­tively stron­ger moti­va­tions, finan­cial inclu­si­on and pay­ments effi­ci­en­cy objec­ti­ves dri­ve gene­ral pur­po­se CBDC work. A tes­ta­ment to the­se moti­ves is the launch of a first “live” CBDC in the Baha­mas. This front-run­ner is likely to be joi­ned by others: cen­tral banks collec­tively repre­sen­ting a fifth of the world’s popu­la­ti­on are likely to issue a gene­ral pur­po­se CBDC in the next three years. Howe­ver, the majo­ri­ty of cen­tral banks remains unli­kely to issue CBDC in the fore­see­ab­le future. …

Quel­le /​ Link: Rea­dy, steady, go? – Results of the third BIS sur­vey on cen­tral bank digi­tal currency