MPs warn that Bank of England retail digital pound work should “proceed with caution”
The U.K. Parliamentary Treasury Committee urged the Bank of England and HM Treasury to address data privacy and financial stability concerns before considering the implementation of a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) or ‘digital pound’. To mitigate financial stability risks, the Committee’s report suggested lowering the mooted £20,000 individual holding limit to £10,000. The report also urged the government to alleviate privacy concerns that organizations or the government could use a retail digital pound to monitor or control how users spend their money. These concerns could be mitigated through robust regulation and legislated protections related to the ability of any future government to access people’s data. [Read more at the U.K. Parliament]
First digital securities transactions commercially settled with real wholesale CBDC
December 1, 2023 saw the world’s first commercial settlements of digital securities transactions with real wholesale CBDC on a regulated distributed ledger technology (DLT) based financial market infrastructure (SDX). One was a CHF 105 million franc digital four-year bond issued by the Canton of Basel-Stadt, and the second was a CHF 100 million digital 11-year bond issued by the Canton of Zurich. The wholesale CBDC was issued by the Swiss National Bank as part of Helvetia III. In addition to the settlement on the SDX platform, part of the settlement took place on SIX SIS, the national central securities depository (CSD) of the Swiss financial market and an International Central Securities Depository (ICSD), which runs a node on SDX. [Read more from the SNB’s Thomas Moser on LinkedIn]
Interoperability aspects of CBDC across ecosystems and borders
The Journal of Payments Strategy & Systems published a paper by Gieseke+Devrient’s Lars Hupel that describes the state of the art for interoperability between different digital ecosystems, including bridges, exchanges and wrappers. The precise design of such solutions is highly context-dependent and requires careful analysis of use cases, stakeholders, and operational concerns. With regards to CBDC the challenges relate to the multiple connection points, and the absence of a single technological means to address all of them uniformly. The paper puts forward some suggestions around different CBDC design options and potential use cases, and discusses some case studies. [Download the paper on SSRN]
FYI here are some of my upcoming speaking engagements:
– Digital Euro Conference 2024 (Frankfurt on February 29)[Register here]
*For those interested in intra-day updates, check out my searchable Diigo Fintech developments database, which is also a good place to go to query for past developments: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/ART.
Kiffmeister’s central bank digital currency monthly monitor
Just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work for a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and who would like to receive it by email on the first business day of every month, please DM me on LinkedIn or email me at chronicles@kiffmeister.com
The Sovereign Official Digital Association (SODA) is a technology-agnostic firm offering advisory services at the intersection of central banking, digital finance and the web3 industry, aiming to make public digital money a reality. SODA believes institutions in the existing financial ecosystem should have access to the tools and resources they need to move from discussion to action. SODA offers ‘real life’ use cases to help test digital money and drive adoption as central banks and other public institutions explore the future of a more financially inclusive world powered by interoperable blockchain-based networks. SODA would love you to join us on this journey – please get in touch (chris@sodapublicmoney.org).
Satoshi Capital Advisors is a New York-based, global advisory firm that works with central banks, governments, and the private sector to architect, implement, and operate varying initiatives. Satoshi Capital Advisors’ central bank work revolves around CBDC architecture and implementation, providing advisory services from research phase through to growth phase. Utilizing a product-market fit and technology agnostic approach to CBDC architecture and implementation enables Satoshi Capital Advisors to build tailored solutions, bespoke to local financial system nuances. Satoshi Capital Advisors welcomes requests from central bank officials for virtual and in-person CBDC workshops. [Click here for more information]
WhisperCash offers the first fully offline digital currency platform that has the same properties as physical cash. It can perform secure consecutive offline payments without compromising on security, privacy or accessibility. WhisperCash allows direct person to person offline payments without any server infrastructure or internet connectivity. It comes in various form factors including the self-contained credit card-sized “Pro” that sports an eInk screen and capacitive keyboard, and lasts for two weeks between recharges assuming a few transactions per day. [Click here for more information]