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☆ G7 to discuss digital currency standards, crypto regulation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Leika Kihara | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"As a priority of this year, the G7 will consider how best to help developing countries introduce CBDC consistent with appropriate standards, including the G7 public policy principle for retail CBDC," he said. Outside the G7, China has been leading the pack on issuing a digital currency. G7 central banks have set common standards toward issuing CBDCs as some proceed with experiments. The collapse of crypto exchange FTX last year "was a serious wake-up call" for policymakers to create regulation across borders, he said. Reporting by Leika Kihara in Tokyo; Editing by Jamie FreedOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The finance ministry will set up a panel of experts as early as April to discuss the feasibility of issuing a digital yen, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The step will come after the central bank's decision to start in April a pilot programme to test the use of a digital yen, moving Japan closer to issuing a CBDC in several years. The central bank has said the pilot programme may last for several years. Some laws may need to be revised if the government were to start issuing a CBDC for public use. Public broadcaster NHK reported on Thursday the finance ministry was considering setting up an advisory panel in April to discuss the possibility of a digital yen.

☆ The Fed is about to deliver a momentous policy decision. It'll be a choice between keeping the focus on inflation or stemming the banking chaos.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Max Adams | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Powell and the Fed may acknowledge that monetary policy has caused some pain, and even add that more may be coming. What's your prediction for today's Fed decision and what Powell might say about the recent banking tumult? A market analyst says investors need to have some key questions answered by the Fed today. Market watchers should pay attention over whether the central bank sees the SVB collapse and resulting crisis as deflationary. The governor of Florida has proposed legislation to ban a central bank digital currency and has called on like-minded states to do the same.

☆ Brazil announces pilot for digital currency seeking to leverage financial services
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRASILIA, March 6 (Reuters) - Brazil's central bank announced the start of a digital currency pilot project on Monday, aiming to replicate the success of its instant payment system Pix to popularize financial services in the country. Araujo said the "digital real" will be built as a means of payment executed on distributed ledger technology (DLT), to support the provision of retail financial services settled through tokenized deposits in institutions of the financial and payment systems in Brazil. There is a great potential for new service providers, fintechs, democratizing access to the market and offering new services." Araujo stressed that the concept of the Brazilian central bank digital currency (CBDC) was not intended to leverage digital payments, as this is already being done on a large scale with Pix, which was launched at the end of 2021 and has been widely adopted in Brazil. "Banks are very interested in this new tokenized world, in every conversation we have they have shown a lot of interest," said Araujo.

☆ The Treasury just gave the strongest indication yet that the US will get a digital dollar, but an expert says proliferation of CBDCs poses risks to the dollar.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The US Treasury just made its strongest indication that a central bank digital currency is on the table. A US digital dollar, Liang said, would be legal tender and users could convert it one-for-one with other forms of central bank assets, like paper money or reserves. Redbord also believes the US must carefully evaluate the space, given that China is embarking on a similar digital currency program that's aimed at competing with the dollar. In her Wednesday speech, Liang differentiated between wholesale and retail digital dollars. The upside for a retail CBDC, meanwhile, comes from access, rather than technology, but could also destabilize private sector lending during times of duress, she added.

☆ Bank of Japan to launch pilot program for issuing digital yen in April
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) said on Friday it has decided to launch a pilot program in April for issuing a digital yen, moving a step closer to launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in a country that lags in digitizing its payment systems. The move, which was widely expected, will follow two years of experiments the central bank has been conducting to decide whether to issue a CBDC. "Our hope is that the pilot program will lead to improved designs through discussion with private businesses," BOJ Executive Director Shinichi Uchida said in opening remarks at the central bank's meeting with private-sector executives. While it was up to the public to decide whether to actually issue a digital yen, the BOJ will "continue to make thorough preparations" when circumstances lead to the launch of a CBDC, the central bank said in a statement.

☆ New look CBDCs and cryptomarket to emerge from turmoil, top BIS official says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Marc Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Cryptomarkets have not been killed off by last year's turmoil, while the new wave of central bank digital currencies will face geopolitical limits, the Bank for International Settlements' new innovation head has predicted. Dubbed the central bank to the world's central bank, the BIS has long been critical of cryptocurrencies, likening bitcoin to both a ponzi scheme and market bubble in the past. Since the start of 2023, however, there has been something of a rebound, including a 40% recovery in bitcoin's price. The European Central Bank should get the go-ahead for full-scale tests. "We will never have full interconnectedness," Skingsley said, adding though that the BIS' work aimed to make CBDCs as versatile as possible.

☆ Britain presses on with proposals for a digital pound
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Pound coins are seen in the photo illustration taken in Manchester, Britain September 6, 2017. BoE Governor Andrew Bailey said the implications of a digital pound - including privacy issues - had to be considered. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asked the BoE to look into the case for a CBDC when he was finance minister in 2021. Unlike cryptoassets, the digital pound would be issued by the central bank and not the private sector and its value would be fixed. Instead they would have accounts with private digital wallet providers, which would provide digital pounds over public infrastructure.

☆ Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency, the Telegraph reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The Bank of England (BoE) and Britain's finance ministry think the UK is likely to need to create a central bank digital currency (CBDC) later this decade, the Telegraph newspaper reported on Saturday, citing an unreleased government report. The BoE declined to comment on the Telegraph article, but said a joint consultation on CBDC issues would be published shortly. BoE Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe is due to give a speech on Tuesday to update the finance industry on the BoE's CBDC work. The European Central Bank is working on a digital version of its currency and is in the process of outlining the broader design. Last month it said it would not offer personal bank accounts but would allow person-to-person payments.

☆ Expansionist dreams threaten ECB digital euro plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Rebecca Christie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The idea of a digital euro with the same reserve backing as its physical equivalent is thus partly about Frankfurt controlling the process. At best, a digital euro could bring more citizens into the banking system, particularly those who don’t have enough money for traditional financial services products. That jars with central bankers’ preference to limit the digital euro to the EU at first. The euro does not need a digital currency, but its members have signalled they want one. Reuters GraphicsFollow @rebeccawire on TwitterCONTEXT NEWSEuro area finance ministers issued a statement on the so-called digital euro on Jan. 16, calling for political oversight and an international approach of a European central bank digital currency (CBDC).

☆ House Republicans move to regulate crypto industry with a new subcommittee
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The unregulated nature of the crypto industry emerged as a pressing concern late last year after the collapse in November of crypto exchange FTX. Hill has been an enthusiastic supporter of the crypto industry. Emmer described actions taken by Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler as "haphazard and unfocused." Senate Democrats, meanwhile, have already begun to prepare their own efforts to oversee the crypto industry and dictate enforcement actions. The commission charged crypto lender Genesis and crypto exchange Gemini with the unregistered sale and offering of securities on Thursday, the same day that Hill announced the subcommittee.

☆ Cryptocurrencies could cause the next financial crisis, Indian central bank head warns
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Shaktikanta Das, governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), called for private cryptocurrencies to be "prohibited." The next financial crisis will be caused by private cryptocurrencies, if these assets are allowed to grow, the head of India's central bank warned on Wednesday. Das' comments come as the central bank pushes to introduce its own digital version of the Indian rupee. The digital rupee is a type of central bank digital currency (CBDC). China's central bank is furthest ahead globally on the development of a CBDC.

☆ India cenbank says digital currency transactions to stay largely anonymous
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Nupur Anand | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

India started the pilot project for its digital currency, or e-rupee, from Nov 1, when it was opened for initial trial. Then only being used by banks for settlements with each other, the scope of the project was expanded to include consumers and retailers-led transactions from Dec. 1. "E-rupee is money, UPI is a payment method," RBI's Sankar said. "Digital currency is like payment of cash, it is possible that two private entities can provide wallet features and money can move in between them. That is not possible with UPI which has to be from one bank to the other," he said, adding that e-rupee provides privacy unlike UPI.

☆ Australia's RBA finds unexpected industry interest in an eAUD
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Interested entities ranged from large banks, financial market infrastructure providers and consultancies, to small digital asset firms and fintechs. The RBA intends to select a number of proposals to take forward into the pilot phase early next year. However, Jones cautioned that the actual adoption of a retail CBDC to replace cash would be revolutionary and come with costs and dangers that had yet to be addressed. Instead, it was possible household holdings of eAUD at the RBA would end up replacing deposits held by commercial banks, sapping their ability to lend. "Prior to crossing this Rubicon, a strong public interest case would first need to emerge," Jones concluded on adoption of a retail CBDC.

☆ Indonesia c.bank says digital rupiah currency can be used in metaverse
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

JAKARTA, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Indonesia's central bank (BI) governor Perry Warjiyo said on Monday its planned digital rupiah currency can be used in the future to buy products in the metaverse. BI launched the design for its digital rupiah last week, following many central banks around the world that are developing so-called central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Perry, speaking at an event on the digital rupiah, added the currency will use a technology platform that will be compatible with other central banks' digital currencies. Perry said there will be an agreement among central banks on the exchange rate used for digital currencies and on its operational supervision, which includes cyber risk and capital flow. BI will roll out the digital rupiah in stages, starting from wholesale CBDC to development of the digital rupiah's business model for monetary operations and money market, and eventually a retail CBDC for everyday use.

☆ Bank of Korea's Rhee 'not so sure' about digital currencies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SEOUL, Dec 2 (Reuters) - South Korea's central bank governor Rhee Chang-yong said he became sceptical of the benefits of new technologies related to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), after recent events in the cryptocurrency market. "I was more positive before, but after seeing the Luna, Terra, and now the FTX issues ... I don't know (if) we will see the real benefit of this new technology, at least for monetary policy," said Rhee, a panelist at a session on digital currency. The market saw another rout last month, after one of the world's biggest crypto exchanges FTX filed for bankruptcy, with crypto lending company BlockFi following suit. Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

MUMBAI, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A month into India's pilot project for using an official digital rupee for inter-bank and institutional transactions, stakeholders are seeing no benefits, several bankers said. But in the initial trial banks have been using it for settlements with each other - with no particular advantage, according to bankers. Another issue is that, since e-rupee transactions do not wholly replace those using established procedures, they add to banks' accounting work. It would also offer a safer means of digital payment in retail use, the RBI said. UPI, an instant real-time consumer payments system that lets users transfer money between banks without disclosing account details, has been a factor in India's soaring digital payment volume.

☆ Indonesia c.bank launches white paper on planned digital currency
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

JAKARTA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Indonesia's central bank on Wednesday unveiled plans for a digital rupiah currency that will use blockchain technology, as the country sees a boom in digital transactions. The digital rupiah will underline Bank Indonesia's (BI) role as the sole authority to issue legal tender, including a digital currency, Governor Perry Warjiyo said at an event where he also laid out the central bank's policy guidance for 2023. Indonesia currently bans the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, but allows transactions of the digital assets in the commodity futures market for investment purposes. "Digital rupiah will be implemented in stages, starting from wholesale CBDC for issuance, elimination and transfer between banks," he said. Indonesia has seen double-digit growth in digital banking transactions in the past few years with transactions in 2022 set to grow 30% to 53,144 trillion rupiah ($3.38 trillion), according to BI's data.

☆ Breakingviews: Crypto winter highlights gold’s warming qualities
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Edward Chancellor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

LONDON, Nov 25 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The crypto winter is bitterly cold. The FTX founder agreed that digital tokens were impossible to value since they generated no cash flow. In other words, the entire crypto world has the mechanics of a Ponzi scheme. In such a nightmare scenario, access to a decentralised, anonymised type of digital money could prove indispensable. In this world bitcoin serves as the lifeboat for civilisation, offering protection against both anarchy and the surveillance state.

☆ Crypto winter highlights gold’s warming qualities
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Edward Chancellor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

That’s why crypto pioneers developed stablecoins, which peg their market price to old-fashioned fiat currencies. The FTX founder agreed that digital tokens were impossible to value since they generated no cash flow. In other words, the entire crypto world has the mechanics of a Ponzi scheme. In such a nightmare scenario, access to a decentralised, anonymised type of digital money could prove indispensable. In this world bitcoin serves as the lifeboat for civilisation, offering protection against both anarchy and the surveillance state.

☆ BOJ to conduct digital yen trial with Japan's 3 megabanks, others - Nikkei
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Daniel Leussink | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Florence Lo/IllustrationTOKYO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan will start a trial with an eye on launching a digital yen with Japan's three megabanks and regional banks next spring, the Nikkei newspaper reported. The central bank could decide in 2026 whether to issue a digital currency after verifying issues for two years, such as whether there are problems with deposits and withdrawals from bank accounts, Nikkei said. A spokesperson for the BOJ was not immediately available to comment on Wednesday, a public holiday in Japan. It will likely come after the BOJ wraps up a second phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) experiment that started in April, and which will last about a year. The BOJ will collaborate with participating banks in the trial from next spring to check whether CBDCs can be transferred between accounts, the Nikkei reported.

☆ NY Fed official: Digital dollar could speed foreign exchange settlement
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Michael S. Derby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 4 (Reuters) - A top Federal Reserve Bank of New York official said on Friday that the bank sees promise in using a central bank digital dollar to speed up settlement time in foreign exchange markets. Michelle Neal, who is head of the bank's Markets Group, did not say anything involving a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, was imminent. Foreign exchange spot transactions "are critical in the context of cross-border payments, and serve as a building block for longer, more complex transactions," Neal said in the text of remarks to be given before a conference in Singapore. According to the research effort, a Fed digital dollar, used in a wholesale capacity, and the technology to record transactions "results in instant and atomic settlement." The Fed has been exploring for some time how it can launch a fully digital dollar that some have referred to as Fedcoin.

LISBON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Plans by central banks to launch digital currencies are not a threat to other cryptocurrencies as they would validate blockchain technology and build trust among sceptics, the CEO of the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, said on Wednesday. Most major central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, are studying the potential launch of a digital version of their currencies, dubbed CBDC. read more"Is it (CBDC) a threat to Binance or other crypto-currencies? He said the blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies should be available for CBDC and adopted by governments. Still, he said, recently cryptocurrency has been highly correlated with the stock market, with both assets correcting sharply as central banks hike interest rates to control record inflation.

☆ Britain's new PM is a fan of crypto. There are hopes he'll give the industry a boost
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Dan Kitwood | Getty ImagesU.K. cryptocurrency firms and investors have high hopes that new prime minister Rishi Sunak could turn around Britain's fading crypto aspirations. Crypto isn't exactly high up on his priority list, but industry insiders say there's reason to be optimistic. Before Sunak's appointment as PM, confidence in the U.K.'s position in the global crypto market had been waning. In a survey of 300 British fintech founders, only 9% believe it's leading the way on crypto. Yet the U.K. is home to a fairly active crypto market.

[1/2] People buy food at stalls promoting China's digital yuan, or e-CNY, during the 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, China September 1, 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu WangHONG KONG/SHANGHAI, Oct 27 (Reuters) - China's digital yuan took the centre stage in the world's largest cross-border central bank digital currency (CBDC) trial to date, a report showed, pointing to how Beijing is speeding up yuan globalization efforts amid rising geopolitical tensions. China's digital currency, or e-CNY, was the most issued, and actively transacted token in the $22 million pilot that used CBDCs to settle cross-border trades, a Bank of International Settlement (BIS) report showed. The PBOC's participation in m-Bridge represents its ambition to eventually promote global, wholesale use of the e-CNY. But China's yuan internationalisation, digital or not, faces challenges amid a slowing economy ravaged by COVID flare-ups, and a property debt crisis.

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