One reason to pursue the development of a retail central bank digital currency in Australia may be because it offers the prospect of greater security and privacy than commercial bank deposits.
The Chancellor today (13 December 2021) hailed the strength of the G7 and praised his international counterparts for their cooperation and resilience as he chaired his final meeting under the UK’s year-long presidency.
Raphael Auer, Rainer Böhme
Central banks across the world are starting to experiment with digital currencies. A 2021 BIS Survey of central banks “has found that 86% are actively researching the potential for CBDCs, 60% were experimenting with the technology and 14% were deploying pilot projects” (BIS 2021). Just last year, the Bahamas became the first country to introduce a CBDC nationwide (the sand dollar) and in April, the Eastern Caribbean became the first currency union central bank to issue digital cash.
1 Overall, the BIS reports that at least 46 central banks are currently actively designing or planning for the possible introduction of digital currencies (Auer et al. 2020). This year, the Bank of England and the Treasury announced the joint creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Taskforce to explore a potential UK CBDC.