The President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland has revealed details of the Fed’s ongoing research into a potential digital dollar. Speaking in a keynote address on September 23, Loretta Mester emphasized that the Federal Reserve has been exploring central bank digital currencies (CBDC) since before the pandemic, noting that its Board of Governors has been “building and testing a range of distributed ledger platforms to understand their potential benefits and tradeoffs.” She also noted initiatives from regional Federal Reserve branches, including a multi-year partnership between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Boston Fed, in …

The tech and payments-focused subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce company JD.com has entered into a partnership with the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China. Local media reported on Sept. 21 that JD Digital Technology and the Digital Currency Research Institute will promote the development of mobile applications and blockchain platforms that are in line with PBoC’s forthcoming central bank digital currency. The two entities will also promote the creation of wallets that support China’s digital currency. The mobile applications will reportedly support the digital renminbi and they will be integrated with JD Group’s existing platforms and services. …

Retail central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, do not require the use of blockchain technology, according to executives at major European central banks. Thomas Moser, an alternate member of the governing board at Swiss National Bank, and Deutsche Bundesbank’s Martin Diehl discussed the state of CBDCs at the European Blockchain Convention Virtual 2020 conference on Monday. During the online panel discussion, both Diehl and Moser seemed to agree that global retail CBDC projects do not need blockchain, citing a number of reasons. Moser said that the primary use cases for blockchain intend to provide trust when a project has no …

The People’s Bank of China is placing a strong emphasis on the geopolitical stakes of the country’s central bank digital currency development. An article published in the PBoC-run magazine China Finance this weekend argued that Beijing should “accelerate the pace [of CBDC development] to seize the first track” in the global race to issue fiat digital currencies. The article stated that China should seize the advantage of becoming a first mover in the arena of digital currencies, which it characterized as the “new battlefield” of inter-state competition. At stake, the article claimed, would be significant changes to the geopolitical status …

The Philippine central bank sees digital tokens as a means to reduce the use of fiat money and improve the delivery of financial services in the country, even as the country is still studying its own digital currency. Speaking to Bloomberg, Philippine central bank Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, or BSP, governor Benjamin Diokno said digital tokens “expand reach and lessen costs of financial services” as well as reduce the use of fiat money. Diokno said digital tokens improve how the central bank provides financial services to citizens. The Philippines is one of the country’s studying the launch of its own …

China’s Digital Currency Electronic Payment system is at the forefront of news around central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. As China will be the first nation to launch a CBDC, the changes a digital yuan promises for global economics and the role this plan plays in pushing for a “currency war” keeps its project in headlines. For its part, the proposed currency not only poses a threat but is intended to threaten, and potentially unseat, the U.S. dollar for the top position of global reserve currency. However, to understand how successful a digital yuan may be in this endeavor, it’s …

The Bahamas is gunning to become the first country in the world to roll out a state-backed virtual currency nationwide, and has announced it will launch a central bank-issued cryptocurrency in October. The assistant manager of eSolutions at the Central Bank of The Bahamas, Chaozhen Chen, told Bloomberg that the digital currency, dubbed “Sand Dollars,” is intended to drive greater financial inclusion among the remote islands within the archipelago nation. “A lot of residents in those more remote islands don’t have access to digital payment infrastructure or banking infrastructure. We really had to customize the effort and the solution to …

China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) known as the digital yuan should be regulated in line with cash-related laws, according to a senior exec at the country’s central bank. In an opinion article on Sept. 14, Fan Yifei, a deputy governor of the People's Bank of China (PBoC), outlined the major regulatory principles for the operation of the digital yuan. the digital representation of the official currency of the People’s Republic of China. According to Fan, the digital renminbi is legally compensatory to the traditional fiat currency. In the article, the deputy governor outlined that the digital RMB is “mainly …

From the Chinese government’s perspective, cryptocurrencies are not considered legal tender; instead, they are categorized under a type of “virtual commodity," but some industry players believe the Blockchain Service Network (BSN) infrastructure can stimulate the development of virtual currencies like a CBDC. During an interview with Cointelegraph, Eden Dhaliwal, Global Managing Director at Conflux Network, a layer-1 blockchain protocol and the only state-endorsed public blockchain project in China, stated that the government of China is highly motivated to launch a CBDC to “dominate the digital commerce landscape and make the economy future-ready.” The BSN is a major blockchain interoperability infrastructure …

The pandemic has seen consumers adopt digital payments in increasing numbers and the trend was accelerating, said the President of the European Central Bank (ECB) Christine Lagarde. She also indicated a panel of euro-zone central bank officials is set to reveal a verdict on a European central bank digital currency (CBDC) imminently. Speaking at an online conference hosted by Deutsche Bundesbank on Sept. 10, Lagarde, stated that EU residents had embraced digitalization, with e-commerce sales increasing roughly 20% between February and June, even as total retail sales declined 1.2%. She said the volume of online payments had experienced “double-digit growth …

Mastercard announced on Wednesday the release of a proprietary tool targeted to central banks that wish to test their Central Bank Digital Currency, or CBDC. Over 70% of central banks are entertaining the idea of a digital currency in some form, a Bank of International Settlements report noted. While few have moved into actual concept and experimentation, the tool released by Mastercard aims to make testing simpler. The tool simulates various types of transaction environments to let central banks evaluate CBDC use cases. It mimics the issuance, distribution and exchange of CBDCs between banks, financial services companies and consumers. Mastercard …

Three to five nations worldwide will entirely replace their fiat currency with a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, by 2030, a European think tank predicts. Dutch fintech-focused non-profit think tank dGen released a report devoted to geopolitical trends of CBDCs on Sept. 9. Titled “CBDCs: Geopolitical Ramifications of a Major Digital Currency,” the 30-page report takes a deep dive on the status of major global fiat currencies like the United States dollar, the euro, and China’s yuan. Compiled with support from institutions like the European Central Bank (ECB), Standard Chartered Bank, and the Frankfurt School, the report makes some …