Digital currency
Switzerland’s Jordan on extraordinary monetary policy and sovereign money
The Swiss National Bank governor speaks about currency intervention, negative rates, sovereign money and the diversification of reserves
A real-time payments revolution in Asia
Asian central banks have encouraged the development of instant payment systems to defend monetary policy transmission and counter cryptocurrency usage
Central bank digital currency a ‘terrible idea’, US Congress told
Move to central bank cryptocurrency would make Fed “overwhelming credit allocator” - researcher
FSB launches crypto asset monitoring framework
Metrics will focus on the financial stability risk of crypto market; much of the data will be pulled from public sources
Bank of Finland paper calls digital currency a ‘fallacy’
Crypto assets highlight how poorly understood money is today – BoF official
Blockchain panel says 'crypto bubble' is not cause for concern
Assets are not used widely enough to cause severe shock to financial markets; bubble needs to burst for crypto assets to compete in the market
Central bank digital currency would be unsafe – senior ECB official
Lack of finality in payment could cause major instability, Benoit Coeuré says
DLT could reduce risk in payments – BoE official
Cryptography could help secure payments messages and reduce the risk of fraud
Caribbean central banks look for common approach to fintech
Working group set up to look at crypto assets in the region
Central bank digital currency of no benefit to financial stability – RBNZ research
CBDC could make New Zealand’s banking sector more susceptible to spillovers
Bank of Lithuania to regulate ICOs that mimic securities
Where coin offerings have properties of securities, the central bank will have oversight; financial institutions could have licence withdrawn if regulation is not followed
Central bank-issued digital currency threatens privacy – BoI official
CBDCs may not be compatible with rights of individuals, says Bank of Italy’s Panetta
Sarb says blockchain project exceeds expectations
System has capability to process twice the number of transactions as the current RTGS system
Visa outage highlights fragility of electronic payments
European network experiences outage for several hours on June 1, due to hardware failure; consumers forced to withdraw cash to make payments
BoE research says digital currency would ‘strengthen’ policy transmission
Under proposed framework, a CBDC would have limited impact on monetary policy but a lack of data means further research into design and demand will be crucial
Norges Bank does not rule out launching digital currency
Central bank publishes first phase of research, saying a digital currency could be an alternative to deposit money when cash usage declines
Brainard ‘optimistic’ DLT has future in financial services
While privacy remains a concern, Fed board member believes resilience of the technology means it has a future, even if crypto dies out
Canada’s Project Jasper finds DLT is viable for securities settlement
Phase III of the project saw central bank cash and assets instantly settled across a DLT network where privacy is maintained
No reason for public to have central bank accounts – Cœuré
ECB executive board member sees no current need for central bank digital currency, but says it could act as an alternative to cash in future
Dramatic fall in Bitcoin price correlates with introduction of futures, authors argue
Dramatic fall in Bitcoin price correlates with introduction of futures, authors argue
The hunt for a crypto taxonomy
Cryptocurrency, crypto asset, crypto token – or something else? Finding the right term helps shed light on the structure of the fast-growing crypto market
Bank of Canada paper offers advice on digital currency policy
Framework designed to help policymakers weigh up various forms of digital money
Venezuelan public invited to invest in national crypto asset
President Maduro announces public will be able to invest in ‘petro’ as well as gold; $1 billion from the proceeds of first petro auction to go to the central bank
Public should be allowed to open accounts with central banks – research
St Louis Fed paper argues against central banks launching full-blown digital currencies, but says an electronic form of central bank money “would be easy to implement”