Neue Zürcher Zeitung, July 5, 2023. PDF. HTML. Ein digitaler Euro könnte den Wettbewerb fördern, mehr Transparenz schaffen und das Too-big-to-fail-Problem entschärfen. Mit ihrer Minimalvariante aber priorisiert die EZB das Ziel der Bewahrung des Status quo im Bankensystem.
Read More »“Digital Euro: An Assessment of the First Two Progress Reports,” SUERF, 2023
SUERF Policy Brief 612, June 2023. HTML, PDF. Executive summary: The ECB’s first two progress reports on the digital euro clarify the project teams’ considerations. Some motivations for a digital euro remain vague, some fundamental tradeoffs receive limited attention. Most importantly, the reports lack an analysis of why digital euro holdings as stores of value are not desirable and whether strategies to limit such holdings cause collateral damage. Against that backdrop some of the design...
Read More »“Digital Euro: An Assessment of the First Two Progress Reports,” European Parliament, 2023
European Parliament, April 2023. PDF. Executive summary: The two progress reports provide an insightful overview over some of the thinking underlying the digital euro project. The reports remain vague in some respects, which is not surprising given the early stage of the project and the division of tasks between the ECB and the Commission. The first report suggests that the digital euro can help preserve public money as the anchor of the payment system, but it does not explain how the...
Read More »The Economist on CBDC—and SVB
The Economist refers to our work in the `Free Exchange’ section: But some argue banks would work fine if the public switched their deposits for central-bank digital currencies, so long as the central bank stepped in to replace the lost funding. “The issuance of [such currencies] would simply render the central bank’s implicit lender-of-last-resort guarantee explicit,” wrote Markus Brunnermeier and Dirk Niepelt in 2019. This scenario seems to have partly materialised since the failure...
Read More »“Finanzplatz steuert auf eine Verstaatlichung der UBS zu (Switzerland on its Way to Nationalizing UBS),” NZZ, 2023
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, March 22, 2023. PDF. How to respond? Nationalization now rather than later? Breaking UBS up? Placing government representatives on the supervisory board? Illiquidity crises and the lender of last resort. Vollgeld, higher reserve requirements, and CBDC as partial solutions to TBTF problems.
Read More »Vienna
WKO guest professor at the University of Vienna. Public event on 19 January.
Read More »Mariana: CBDCs in Automated Market Makers
Three BIS innovation hubs plan to test DeFi inspired liquidity pools to exchange wCBDCs. BIS press release: Project Mariana will use DeFi protocols to automate foreign exchange markets and settlement. Automated market makers can become the basis for new generation of financial infrastructure. Exploration on cross-border exchange of wholesale CBDCs is the first to involve three Hub centres. The BIS Innovation Hub is launching a new project around central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)...
Read More »“Money and Banking with Reserves and CBDC,” UniBe, 2022
UniBe Discussion Paper 22-12, October 2022. PDF. We analyze retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) in a two-tier monetary system with bank deposit market power and externalities from liquidity transformation. Resource costs of liquidity provision determine the optimal monetary architecture and modified Friedman (1969) rules the optimal monetary policy. Optimal interest rates on reserves and CBDC differ. A calibration for the U.S. suggests a weak case for CBDC in the baseline but a...
Read More »Digital Money and Finance: What’s New?
CEPR/SUERF/CB&DC webinar with Darrell Duffie, Todd Keister, Harald Uhlig, Dirk Niepelt. Youtube Digitisation rapidly changes money, banking and finance. Are these changes fundamental and radical—or part of a continuous process of technological progress and efficiency improvement? Do academics have to re-think money, banking and finance—or do conventional theories apply? And do finance professionals and regulators need to re-assess their frameworks and tools to keep up with the...
Read More »Webinar on “Digital Money and Finance: What’s New?,” CEPR/SUERF/CB&DC, 2023
CEPR/SUERF/CB&DC webinar with Darrell Duffie, Todd Keister, Harald Uhlig, Dirk Niepelt. Youtube Digitisation rapidly changes money, banking and finance. Are these changes fundamental and radical—or part of a continuous process of technological progress and efficiency improvement? Do academics have to re-think money, banking and finance—or do conventional theories apply? And do finance professionals and regulators need to re-assess their frameworks and tools to keep up with the...
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