Taiwan has said that it has completed trials of its prototype retail CBDC in technical simulations. This was concluded three months early. Electronic payments have risen from 40% in 2017 to 60% in the first quarter of 2022.

Schroders, a global asset management and wealth manager, has published a perspective piece, ‘Stablecoins: what they mean for the future of money’.

The Bank of Canada (BOC) has issued a paper investigating the relationship of Bitcoin owners with cash. The paper is written in the context of understanding whether private digital currencies will make serious inroads into the use of cash, particularly for transactions.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Hong Kong Innovation Hub will start Project Selah in the third quarter of 2022. The project sees the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Bank of Israel working together, with the BIS, to test a two-tier system.

The CBDC conference has now posted its 2022 agenda online. More information about the conference can be found at www.cbdc-conference.com.

At a BIS event, the Central Bank of Chile announced that it is delaying its planned digital roll out to undertake further work on the benefits and risks.

In preparation for a meeting of emerging market economy Deputy Governors organised by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the BIS surveyed 26 central banks and received papers relating to their CBDC work from 24 of them.

The Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) is working on a possible future Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and is looking to have its Real Digital ready for 2024.

A new IMF paper concludes that the main influence on the demand for cash, and why demand is falling, seems to lie in the demand preferences of changing population structures. If CBDCs are issued, the demand for cash may continue to fall, but the demand for card usage may fall by even more.

China has been working hard to get its e-CNY ready in the run up to the Beijing winter Olympics with the aim of using the games to test its CBDC. The e-CNY could be used by visitors to China as well as the local population.