In advanced economies, many banks are not keen on the idea of a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) for a variety of reasons. For example, it could either dent or decimate their deposit bases. Each country’s cultural norms are on display with how they approach this opposition. In the latest thoughtful paper from the team at Barclays, it is ever so polite. It subtly suggests that a digital pound may not be needed because it’s possible to anchor the pound in other ways. It’s a short, succinct and thought-provoking paper, well worth the read.
“Further research is required before drawing definite conclusions and further work could include public-private collaboration to explore options to anchor all forms of private UK retail digital money,” said Lee Braine, from the chief technology office at Barclays.
On the other side of the pond, the American Bankers Association has been extremely blunt, backing anti-CBDC legislation, which might inadvertently also block a wholesale CBDC. In Europe, one or two banks have voiced concerns about the digital euro and then retreated, with many considering a CBDC rollout as a foregone conclusion. Instead, in the EU several papers from think tanks have questioned whether a digital euro is a good idea.
Barclays’ paper starts by exploring how other jurisdictions have considered this anchoring objective of a retail CBDC. The anchoring function can be broken into three components: the singleness of money, maintaining the status of the official currency as the unit of account, and the safety and soundness of the financial system.
CBDC and the singleness of money
The singleness of money is quite a practical concept. In the past I had a PayPal balance that I wanted to transfer to a Wise account, but PayPal wouldn’t let me (although it does nowadays). If a retail CBDC had existed, I could have transferred the PayPal balance to the CBDC and then to Wise.
However, the Barclays paper points out that you don’t need a CBDC for this. What you need is interoperability between different forms of private money. Combining that with wholesale central bank money for interbank settlement and prudential regulations should be sufficient to ensure the singleness of money.
