#6: Central Banks and Private Money: The Past, Present, and Future

CBDC Broadcast

21 Jun

30th June 2022

With:

| John Kiff (CBDC Think Tank)

| Harish Natarajan (The World Bank)

In this foundational session, John Kiff (CBDC Think Tank) and Harish Natarajan (The World Bank) join FNA to contextualize the current CBDC race within the broader history of financial technology. From the first transatlantic cables to the advent of the ATM, every major leap in payment technology has required a re-balancing of trust between the public and private sectors.

Our guests analyze why G7 economies—burdened by complex legacy systems and entrenched commercial banking lobbies—are moving cautiously in the "Research & Development" phase, while emerging economies like The Bahamas and Nigeria have leaped ahead. We also examine the "Chinese Model," discussing whether other nations will adopt China’s choice of a centralized, non-DLT architecture to maintain control over massive transaction volumes without the latency of a distributed ledger.

Key Discussion Points:

The Stability Equation: How the arrival of a digital central bank liability impacts commercial bank funding costs and long-term profitability.
G7 vs. Emerging Markets: Why smaller nations are leading the deployment of CBDCs (e.g., the Sand Dollar) to solve immediate issues like physical cash distribution and geographic isolation.
Legacy vs. Innovation: Lessons from the transition to digital-first banking and how they apply to the current "Programmable Money" movement.
The Architecture Debate: Weighing the benefits of high-performance centralized systems (like China's e-CNY) against the resilience and transparency of DLT-based solutions.
Monetary Sovereignty: How central banks are using CBDCs to respond to the rise of global stablecoins and "BigTech" payment platforms.

Watch on Demand:

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music

Resources & Links:

John Kiff writes a daily blog on the latest CBDC news and developments, Kiffmeister Chronicles >
“Payment aspects of financial inclusion in the fintech era” Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures Read More >
Central Bank Digital Currency: A Payments Perspective Report Read More >
Central Bank Digital Currencies: A new tool in the financial inclusion toolkit? Read More>
Casting Light on Central Bank Digital Currency Read More >
A Survey of Research on Retail Central Bank Digital Currency Read More >
Behind the Scenes of Central Bank Digital Currency Read More >