Central bank digital currency: the future starts today
13/09/2021 EUROFI Visiter le site sourceSpeech by Benoît Cœuré, Head of the BIS Innovation Hub, at The Eurofi Financial Forum, Ljubljana,
Friday 10 September 2021.
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me to speak here today. We all experienced how the pandemic accelerated the shift to virtual events, but I am pleased that today we are gathering in person.
Yet the world is not returning to the old normal. Payments are a case in point. The pandemic has accelerated a longer-running move to digital. Mobile and contactless payments are already part of our daily lives; QR codes and "buy now, pay later" options are gaining popularity; gloves, badges and Olympic uniforms with payment functions are being prepared for the Beijing Winter Olympics; and the tech-savvy generation will soon dream about money and payments for the metaverse.
Alongside these developments, the world's central banks are stepping up efforts to prepare the ground for digital cash – central bank digital currency (CBDC). 1 They have a job to do – delivering price stability and financial stability – and they must retain their ability to do it. Let me explain.