Cen­tral bank digi­tal cur­ren­ci­es (CBDCs) are recei­ving more atten­ti­on than ever befo­re. Yet the moti­va­tions for issu­an­ce vary across count­ries, as do the poli­cy approa­ches and tech­ni­cal designs. We inves­ti­ga­te the eco­no­mic and insti­tu­tio­nal dri­vers of CBDC deve­lo­p­ment and take stock of design efforts. We set out a com­pre­hen­si­ve data­ba­se of tech­ni­cal approa­ches and poli­cy stances on issu­an­ce, rely­ing on cen­tral bank spee­ches and tech­ni­cal reports. Most pro­jects are found in digi­ti­sed eco­no­mies with a high capa­ci­ty for inno­va­ti­on. Work on retail CBDCs is more advan­ced whe­re the infor­mal eco­no­my is lar­ger. We next take stock of the tech­ni­cal design opti­ons. More and more cen­tral banks are con­side­ring retail CBDC archi­tec­tures in which the CBDC is a direct cash-like cla­im on the cen­tral bank, but whe­re the pri­va­te sec­tor hand­les all cus­to­mer-facing acti­vi­ty. We con­clude with an in-depth descrip­ti­on of three distinct CBDC approa­ches by the cen­tral banks of Chi­na, Swe­den and Canada.

Quel­le /​ Link: Rise of the cen­tral bank digi­tal cur­ren­ci­es: dri­vers, approa­ches and technologies