The Digital Pound Foundation has been formed as an independent body to promote a UK pound based CBDC. Chaired by Jeremy Wilson, the independent forum is backed by Accenture, CGI Group and Ripple and will push for the implementation of a digital pound and digital money ecosystem. The Digital Pound Foundation argues that the adoption a CBDC will... Continue Reading →

In the latest issue of the e-Pound:Unpacked newsletter, we take a look at the creation of the UK’s Central Bank Digital Currency Taskforce, see which Central banks are discussing CBDCs and look at the New Zealand central banks consultation on the future of money. Central Bank Digital Currency Taskforce Source: HM Treasury HM Treasury have published the... Continue Reading →

The first banknotes were issued in China during the reign of Emperor Hien Tsung (AD806-82) and now China is at the forefront of digitising notes and coins into a retail CBDC. Will China’s story of going ‘cashless’ foretell the West’s digital future?  Checkout Cashless: China's Digital Currency Revolution by Richard Turrin. More about Cashless: Cashless is the... Continue Reading →

New analysis shows over 90% of global economy exploring a central bank digital currency The Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Centre have launched a state-of-the-art Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Tracker, offering a global look at the adoption of digital currency.  The original version of the tracker (launched in April 2020) has been used by the Federal Reserve and the... Continue Reading →

The Bank of England has today published a Discussion Paper which aims to broaden the debate around new forms of digital money and seek views on the Bank’s emerging thoughts on the subject. These new forms of digital money could be New forms of digital money or privately provided. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is... Continue Reading →

Bank of England should lead the world by developing its own cryptocurrency, urges former WorldPay boss The Bank of England should steal a march on the rest of the world and develop a crypto-currency, a fintech entrepreneur has urged. Ron Kalifa, former boss of payment processing company Worldpay, urged governors at the Bank to embrace... Continue Reading →

China and UAE central banks explore CBDC for cross-border payments The central banks of China and the United Arab Emirates are joining their counterparts in Thailand and Hong Kong on a CBDC project investigating cross-border foreign currency payments. The Multiple CBDC (m-CBDC) project will see a proof-of-concept prototype developed designed to support real-time cross-border foreign... Continue Reading →

A trial of central bank digital currency in Sweden is to be extended for another year to 2021, in a bid to better understand the benefits and implications of a wider roll-out. Sweden’s Riksbank central bank has been working on plans for a digital krona in partnership with Accenture, which the bank said was designed to address... Continue Reading →

Mastercard is rolling out prepaid cards that can be loaded with the world’s first central bank digital currency, the Bahamian Sand Dollar. With 700 small islands and more than 5000 square miles of water cash money movement in the Bahamas becomes costly. This makes a central bank digital currency (CBDC) a preferred digital payment in... Continue Reading →

Huawei’s new smartphone comes with digital yuan wallet In Digital Fiat 1 we covered a digital Yuan giveaway - today we return to the topic of a Chinese Central Bank Digital Currency and consider a potential world first - a CBDC wallet pre-loaded on a smartphone. Huawei’s latest range of smartphones will allow its users to store, send... Continue Reading →

The Reserve Bank of Australia is collaborating with Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Perpetual and ConsenSys Software on a project to explore the potential use and implications of a wholesale form of central bank digital currency (CBDC) using distributed ledger technology (DLT). The project will involve the development of a proof-of-concept (POC) for the issuance of a tokenised form of CBDC that can be used... Continue Reading →

Christine Lagarde invites public comments on eurozone CBDC Christine Lagarde, former Managing Director of the IMF and current President of the European Central Bank, has invited public commentary on a potential eurozone central bank digital currency (CBDC): We are still in the review and considerations stage, but we’ve just launched a public consultation so that... Continue Reading →

Over the past few days we have looked at the latest CBDC developments in Japan, China, Canada, Australia and the EU but what is happening in the UK? A couple of days ago the Bank of England’s finch director, Tom Mutton, provided an insight into the UK Central Banks current thinking on CBDC’s. In his speech Tom... Continue Reading →

Digital Fiat explores Central Bank Digital Currencies in manageable chunks. These manageable chunks are normally a one or two minute piece - this time we feature a recent Citibank webinar (it’s an hour well invested). Central Bank Digital Currencies – How Will the Future Unfold Central banks are actively investigating the potential to issue digital... Continue Reading →

Explore Central Bank Digital Currencies in manageable chunks with the Digital Fiat newsletter from Northey Point. A daily two minute read on a Central Bank Digital Currency / Digital Fiat development or innovation. Read, subscribe and share:

The European Commission have said that there should be no rivalry between public and private digital currency solutions. Speaking on the subject of digital currencies and the future of a digital euro the European Commission said: A digital euro solution should not crowd out solutions that come from the private sector. In the ECB report,... Continue Reading →

Bank of Canada advertises for digital currencies economist The Bank of Canada is looking to hire an economist focused on digital currencies and financial technologies as it continues to build up its expertise ahead of any possible CBDC implementation. The Canadian central bank states that it wants an economist to join its large-scale fintech research project, a... Continue Reading →

As central banks around the world have been grappling with the pros and cons of creating their own digital currencies the Bank of Japan (BoJ) has announced that it will begin central bank digital currency (CBDC) experiments early in 2021 although it states that it still does not have any plans to issue its own digital yen. The BoJ... Continue Reading →

While other central banks are talking about central bank digital currencies (CBDC), the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is already trialling a Digital Renminbi (known as a Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP)). The DCEP is not a crypto-currency but is a digital version of China's official currency the yuan which is issued and backed by... Continue Reading →