Approaches in retail CBDC: Aligning technology with policy

Amazon Web Services (AWS) published Retail Central Bank Digital Currency: From Vision to Design, which outlines a framework that can help support policymakers in evaluating the interdependencies between central bank digital currency (CBDC) policy and technology choices. In a blog post, they summarized the key principles outlined in paper (see below). “The CBDC strategy framework starts with a central bank’s policy goals and aligns those to design principles to create awareness of potential policy trade-offs. Then, the solution exploration phase aligns technology considerations to those principles, and competitive dynamics from the design are considered. Results from experimentation then feed back into design principles to make sure the technical solution aligns to policy goals.” [Read more]

ECB’s Lagarde Supports Acceleration of Digital Euro Work

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde reportedly says she supports accelerating work on a digital euro. She is confident it will become a reality, but the decision is ultimately up to the ECB’s General Council. Lagarde told Bloomberg last year that the digital euro could be rolled out by 2025, although In September ECB adviser Jürgen Schaaf said the ECB’s experiments and research into a digital euro are no guarantee that one will be launched. [Read more]