Tag Archives: Central bank digital currency

The Korean newspaper Workers cites the VoxEU column in which I argued that “Libra paves the way for CBDC.”

From the SNB’s press release regarding the newly established BIS Innovation Hub Centre in Switzerland: “The Swiss Centre will initially conduct research on two projects. The first of these will examine the integration of digital central bank money into a distributed ledger technology infrastructure. This new form of digital central bank money would be aimed at facilitating the settlement of tokenised assets between financial institutions. Tokens are digital assets...

From the SNB’s press release regarding the newly established BIS Innovation Hub Centre in Switzerland: The Swiss Centre will initially conduct research on two projects. The first of these will examine the integration of digital central bank money into a distributed ledger technology infrastructure. This new form of digital central bank money would be aimed at facilitating the settlement of tokenised assets between financial institutions. Tokens are digital assets that can be transferred...

My VoxEU column now also on finews and World News Monitor, September 17, 2019. Digital currencies involve tradeoffs. Libra resolves them less favorably than other projects, and less favorably than CBDC. When confronted with the choice between the status quo and a new financial architecture with CBDC, most central banks have responded cautiously. But Libra or its next best replica will take this choice off the table – the status quo ceases to be an option. The new choice for monetary...

VoxEU, September 12, 2019. HTML. Digital currencies involve tradeoffs. Libra resolves them less favorably than other projects, and less favorably than CBDC. When confronted with the choice between the status quo and a new financial architecture with CBDC, most central banks have responded cautiously. But Libra or its next best replica will take this choice off the table – the status quo ceases to be an option. The new choice for monetary authorities and regulators will be one between...

Journal of Monetary Economics, with Markus Brunnermeier. PDF. When does a swap between private and public money leave the equilibrium allocation and price system unchanged? To answer this question, the paper sets up a generic model of money and liquidity which identifies sources of seignorage rents and liquidity bubbles. We derive sufficient conditions for equivalence and apply them in the context of the “Chicago Plan”, cryptocurrencies, the Indian de-monetization experiment, and Central...

Accepted for publication in the Journal of Monetary Economics, with Markus Brunnermeier. (NBER wp.) When does a swap between private and public money leave the equilibrium allocation and price system unchanged? To answer this question, the paper sets up a generic model of money and liquidity which identifies sources of seignorage rents and liquidity bubbles. We derive sufficient conditions for equivalence and apply them in the context of the “Chicago Plan”, cryptocurrencies, the Indian...

In the FT, Jean-Pierre Landau argues that central banks should introduce central bank digital currency: A CBDC would protect the pre-eminence of public money in a digitalised economy. It would maintain effective convertibility of private into public money and provide a defence against digital dollarisation. For that purpose, a CBDC should be as close as possible to cash. It should be a complement, not a substitute, to bank deposits. It should not carry interest. Whether it should be...

Finanz und Wirtschaft, June 29, 2019. PDF. It is not central bank digital currency (CBDC) per se which might act as a game changer in financial markets. What will be key is how central banks accommodate the introduction of CBDC. In principle, this accommodation can go very far, to the point where the introduction of CBDC does not affect macroeconomic outcomes. But such complete accommodation is unlikely. On the one hand, central banks will want to exploit the new monetary policy options...

In the FT, Chris Giles, Caroline Binham, and Delphine Strauss report about plans of the Bank of England to let fintech companies bank at Threadneedle Street and thereby offer payments systems on a level playing field with commercial banks. The editorial board of the FT welcomes the plans; it seems to have in mind not only competition but also “synthetic” CBDC: By offering fintech companies access to the BoE’s vaults, the governor may inject much-needed competition into the sector. What...