In April 2020 Harro Boven and Peter Wieters published a Dutch National Bank (DNB) Occasional Study on the objectives, pre-conditions and design choices for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Harro wrote an abridged version that was used in Payers December publication about CBDCs which is summarised here.

This paper opens asking three questions from a legal perspective; Do central banks (CBs) have the authority to issue digital currency? Can Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) be real ‘currency’? Should digital currency be legal tender?

This year the Bank of Canada has published 9 staff analytical notes and staff working papers discussing Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). As the most recent paper says, as a contingency the Bank of Canada is looking to build its capability to issue a cash-like retail denominated CBDC.

On 12th October the European Central Bank (ECB) opened a public consultation on the creation of a Digital Euro, a Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). The logic is that the increased usage of digital payments may mean that a Digital Euro is needed to safeguard citizens.

If Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) do not solve a real problem, then they will fail. In a recent paper by Peter Bofinger and Thomas Haas, Professor for Monetary Policy and International Economics and Research Associate and Chair for Monetary Policy and International Economics respectively at the University of Wurzbürg, they throw doubt on whether central banks have found a compelling need for CBDCs.

In January the Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology team from the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the US issued a comprehensive toolkit to help central banks develop their Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) policy by giving them a step by step process to follow, supported by detailed worksheets.