Central banks unite around digital currency

The ECB, the BIS and five big central banks announced that they are joining forces to better assess the potential of digital currencies.

Unveiled this morning by Bank of England (BOE), the group will allow institutions to discuss more about the potential use cases of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), reports Bloomberg.

“The group will assess the use cases of CBDC; choice of economic, functional and technical design, including cross-border interoperability; and sharing knowledge on emerging technologies, ”said BOE.

Co-chaired by the Vice-Governor of the BOE, Jon Cunliffe and Benoit Coeure, a former member of the ECB Executive Board, the consortium was formed by the European Central Bank (ECB), the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Bank of Canada, the Bank of Japan, the Swiss National Bank, the Banque d 'England as well as the Bank of Sweden.

Following the announcement of Facebook Libra, more and more central bankers are interested in blockchain-based currencies.

Last summer, Mark carney, the governor of the BOE, said that a digital currency today would be more suitable than the dollar as the world's reserve currency.

In December, the Bank of France announced that it wanted to test its own, in particular in order to preserve confidence in the financial system, bring efficiency gains and reduce intermediation costs.