Tuesday, February 20, 2024

This presentation reports on the work of Banco de la República de Colombia in the area of wholesale CBDC.

Uruguay was one of the first countries to launch a CBDC pilot in 2017, after this first pilot the technology and objectives for a CBDC have changed and the discussion has become global. What can a central bank learn from a prototype after a pilot? What aspects can be tested in prototypes to launch efficient pilot schemes? This paper takes up the research process of the Central Bank of Uruguay on CBDC and on the challenges of the Payment System.

The offline feature is fundamental to a CBDC: it must be accessible to all segments of society, regardless of network connectivity or access to a smartphone. Financial inclusion is at the heart of this objective. In addition, a public payment system must be resilient. CBDC, like all digital payments, inherently depends on a connection to a network to function. But payment is a critical infrastructure that must continue to function even when the power goes out. During this session we will explore the different scenarios and benefits of implementing offline payments.

What is the most appropriate design of the economic model of a core banking digital currency (CBDC) ecosystem? In this talk we will discuss different ecosystem configurations and economic models that specify "who does what and under what terms", e.g. how to determine the price for network usage and price regulation of digital wallets. We will analyze various CBDC ecosystem configurations discussing economic and technological costs and benefits, as well as their potential impacts.

Tokenized assets can be transferred or exchanged easily, fractionally and atomically through smart contracts that automate new business models. These innovations reduce costs and mitigate risks, while fostering financial inclusion. However, to achieve them, it is necessary to have a risk-free asset, also tokenized, and a secure and reliable settlement platform. The Central Bank of Brazil understood this opportunity and considered the development of the Drex initiative for a wholesale CBDC. We share the experience and current challenges of this initiative, emphasizing the challenges to ensure privacy.

Marcus and Guilherme will share some thoughts on the legal and institutional challenges of central banks and CBDCs in a tokenized economy, from the Brazilian perspective. The Central Bank of Brazil has published guidelines for the future issuance of its wholesale CBDC (known as Drex) and has launched a pilot project, which will conclude by the end of 2024. The Drex platform has the potential to be a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ecosystem in the near future, fostering financial innovation in Brazil by incorporating the idea of "programmable money" into regulated financial and payment systems, but also bringing new legal and institutional challenges for the Central Bank of Brazil.

Note: This presentation will be in Portuguese. The presentation slides will be in Spanish.

Can central bank digital currencies make cross-border transactions faster, cheaper and more efficient? The presentation will summarize BIS Innovation Hub projects that seek to answer this question.

For a CBDC to be successfully launched in the market, different interests have to be taken into account and several prerequisites have to be fulfilled. But what exactly are these prerequisites, how can they be influenced and what interests need to be taken into account? These questions will be discussed in this roundtable.

In order to successfully introduce a CBDC in the market, various interests must be taken into account and several requirements must be met. But what exactly are these interests and requirements, and what conditions must be met to satisfy them to ensure the success of the CBDC? These questions will be discussed in this roundtable.