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 Central Bank Digital Currencies: a Review of Studies Around the World


Nicolas DE SÈZE * Chargé de cours, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne. Contact : nicolas.deseze@gmail.com.L'auteur s'exprime ici en son nom personnel. Ses propos n'engagent pas l'université Paris  1. Il remercie Thomas Argente, Denis Beau, Jean-Michel Godeffroy, Pierre Lahbabi et Christian Pfister pour l'aide qu'ils lui ont apportée, mais ils ne sont en rien responsables des erreurs qui pourraient se trouver dans cet article.

The number of discussions and studies regarding the creation of central bank digital currencies (CBDC) has exploded in recent years as the economy has become digitalized and the use of cash for transactions has declined, but also as crypto-assets have emerged and financial assets have been tokenized. This article historically and geographically reviews central bank digital currency studies throughout the world. The historical review shows that initially, some central banks focused on retail CBDC (targeting the general public), while other central banks focused on wholesale CBDC. Facebook's announcement about its Libra project shifted the focus to retail CBDC. However, more recently, there has been renewed interest in studying wholesale CBDC. The geographical review shows that 90 % of central banks are currently studying CBDC. A (necessarily selective) survey of these studies reveals the diversity of the motivations, contexts, and approaches behind them, but also a consensus on a number of founding principles.